Starlight
by RockBane
Summary: The village of Light raises Naruto, AKA Koichi. He is adopt by the man that stole him and his wife. He learns secrets from elder Ruki and from the great fox that is sealed in him. Complete!
1. Chapter 1

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking'

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 1

He stares at the baby that's cradled in his arms. He can't believe at how easy it's been to steal this child, this little hope. He's elders had a great vision about a gigantic nine-tailed fox demon massacring fighters from a ninja village. They also saw the reason for the attack. They didn't talk about it, but they did say that the fox demon has a soft spot for kids.

Then the vision changed about a year ago. They say that the fox got sealed into a baby. They saw a chance to take this child of hope for the village's own. For visions don't change very often and when they do its often for better and worst. The fact that it's a child that was used meant that that child would have more strength of character then most children his age. But it also means that many people will want to claim this child for the power that's in him. This baby was a gift from Heaven and should be given a chance at a good life.

He's been traveling for a good year to make it in time to steal the child as a baby. As luck would have it, he made it a good two weeks after the incident. He had observed the set up of the guards for a good day before stealing this little gift of hope. It had been surprisingly easy to steal this baby.

He frowns at that simple thought. _'They didn't know just what they had and I even heard rumors of killing him! Better that he lives far away from all of this then to be treated like a living corpse! I wonder if I could possibly adopt him as my own? I know Zoe will be happy to have a baby around the house. I wonder if I'll encounter any Oni as I make my way pass the Tai mountain? Or packs of frost elementals?'_

His thoughts turn to the dangers that his village faces. He knows that this baby will one day face those same threats as well. Hopefully by then he'll be trained enough to handle them. He posts chakra wards around the camp. Then he castes an illusion to make people only see a clearing. He smiles slightly at this skill. From what he can tell, none of the ninja villages around here have ever thought of using charka like this. But then, he knows that they've never encountered a cave drake or any other charka-using beast.

Cave drakes were tough creatures to kill for they were better at casting illusions on themselves then are humans. It was a good thing that cave drakes were few in number, for the females could only breed every thirty years and only two eggs are laid. It also takes two years for them to hatch. They're chakra system were also so different then humans too. But then they didn't exist this far north.

He looks around one last time to make sure that everything was fine. Then he lays the baby on the bed he made for him. He hasn't named the child yet, but he knows that a name will come to him in time. He sighs as he then begins to take out food from his pack. He hasn't eaten for a good three days. The last meal was before he stole the baby. He's traveled far since then. It also helps that he now has a map to use.

He was very glad that the child was quiet during that time, either sleeping or just looking around with his clear blue eyes. He had already had enough milk formula to last another three days, and then he'd have to go into a town to buy more. He had worked some jobs to get money for supplies and for new cloths. He mostly delivered message scrolls.

Soon he eats something and he then checks on his stuff. He then repacks the stuff and checks the kid's diaper. He also notices that the baby boy is wake. He smiles softly at the baby, and then lets the boy take his finger and suck on it. He watches the boy's bright blue eyes look into his own. "I'll protect you, little one. You're a gift, I hope you always remember that." He tells the child softly.

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It's been a good three months and he's in sight of Tai. He smiles at the sight. It means that he's almost home. He looks towards the way he came. He sighs and then continues onward. He had a few run ins with local hunters of ninja and rogue ninja. He mostly fled from battle and had to teleport a good four times just to get out of the traps they set to capture him or kill him. He also knew for a fact that they didn't know about the baby with him.

He continues to trek towards the hidden path that he used when he left. He had also been thinking of names for the baby. One was simple, Ryo. But he also liked Takato and Koichi. He plans on talking with the elders about raising the baby as his son. He had grown very fawned of the light guy. With his whiskered face with blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes.

He moves the slash holding the baby in front of him to see how he fairs. He finds the baby sleeping and he then continues on his way. He only hopes that he doesn't encounter any beasts after he passes the Taijor Mountain range. This mountain range cuts the lands that his village claims from the lands he had just finished traveling through. This range was also home to cave drakes, packs of stone bears, storm eagles, and etc.

But despite all the dangers and tough life in this land, it was his home and he missed so. Unlike the ninja villages, they aren't at war with any other humans. The number of towns, villages, and hamlets of non charka-using people could easily be counted on a single hand. Most of the towns were by important rivers. Only one town is a mining town. For the Taijor Mountain range was rich with minerals. Three villages are fishing villages; one is a farming hamlet, and then the mining town. He just smiles at the thought of seen Zoe's face again.

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The warnings from that pass that Ravis used are lighting up. They have now waited for a good eight days. Now they saw a figure walking towards the village of Light. Many people were all standing at the north gate.

He grins slightly as he spies Zoe looking tired. He knows that his granddaughter hadn't had much sleep over the pass year. He knows that Ravis had successed in stealing the child with the demon sealed in him.

He looks over at elder Ruki was standing. He could see that she has a soft smile on her face. Ruki is over two centuries old. She had the demon Way Path, a she-bear, sealed inside of her since she was a baby. He also knows that Ruki was blind from age then rather from an old battle injury. Ruki was also born in this village when it was still new.

He then turns to watch Zoe race towards Ravis. He smiles at his grandson. Ravis was the one that volunteered to go and steal this child. He watches as Ravis stops Zoe from hugging him. He then takes off a slash that he's wearing and handles a bundle to his granddaughter. He could see the soft smile on Ravis's face from here.

Soon Ravis talks to Zoe about something and then Zoe turns around. They then walk towards the gate; Ravis has his arm around Zoe's shoulder. He could see that Zoe was too busy looking at the bundle in her arms then at where she was going. He sighs and wonders if there's going to be a great grandchild in the near future. He had to grin at the thought of that.

He then hears someone say, "Looks like we have a family for him." He turns to where he heard the voice. He looks at Ruki in shock. "You mean for Ravis and Zoe to adopt him?" He asks. Many of others look at Ruki with a dumb expression on their faces. "Why not? Ravis couldn't travel around with a baby without becoming attached? I would have been shocked if he hadn't." Ruki says in amusement. He just sighs and had to agree with Ruki on that one.

Ravis had been his grandson for a good four years now, and had found him very friendly and Ravis was also a caring young man. Ravis was quick and smart. He had great chakra control and knows his jutsus inside and out. Zoe might have a higher ranking then Ravis, but it never came between them. He's proud of the fact that Ravis wanted to go and steal the child. They haven't had much contact with the northern lands, but that's why they had that translation jutsu. Few northerners make it pass the Taijor Mountain range, and even if they do, they might attack the mining town in hopes on taking as much of the town's riches as they can. Then they'll try to make it back home. They either kill them or the great beasts of the range do the job for them.

He snaps out of his thoughts as Ravis and Zoe walk into the village. He moves to greet them. He hugs Ravis and then looks at the bundle that's in Zoe's arms. To his amazement, the baby was wide awake and looking around quietly. "He's a quiet one. The only real times I've heard him cry are when his diaper needs to be changed and if he's hungry." Ravis tells him. He nods and says, "So, what's his name?" Ravis sighs and answers, "The village leader called him Naruto, but I was thinking about Koichi." Zoe snorts and says, "Why call him fish head? Koichi or Starlight just sounds better. He is a gift from Heaven, so what better name then to call him after the night sky?" Ravis and him exchange looks and then grin at this. "Koichi it is then. My great grandson Koichi." He says. Ravis looks startled at this and asks, "Great grandson?" He just nods his head and Zoe smiles warmly at him.

**To Readers:**

Hope you like this story so far. I haven't heard about the house computer yet and I really wanted to post a story. I also don't know what Naruto means or Koichi but just for this story Naruto means fish head and Koichi means Starlight, ok? Hope to hear from you, so could you review?


	2. Chapter 2

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking'

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 2

He stares tiredly at his baby sister. She's only two years old and he is four years old. He had taken it upon himself to look out for her. He just sits there, watching her play with the blocks. He has skipped his nap to be here. He yawns tiredly and tries to whip his eyes. His hand doesn't make it close to his face as his mom comes into the room.

His mom raises an eyebrow and then sighs. He looks sheepishly at his mom as she walks up to where he was sitting. "Koichi, I thought I told you to go to sleep." His mom says as she knees down. "But someone has to protect Jeri!" He protests as him mom messes with his spiked hair. His mom just smiles a bit at this and says, "I'm here and so is uncle Tori. So, it's nap time for you, little mister."

His mom takes his left hand and then they get up. He yawns as they make it out of the room. Soon he finds himself in his room and on his bed. He really did try to stay awake but failed miserably. He is soon dreaming of fighting a huge arm of Oni and other enemies that he has only heard about. He was winning too.

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He remembers when he resented Jeri. It was just before her second birthday. He didn't like the fact that Jeri took away his parent's attention from him. He complained long and hard about hearing Jeri's cries in the middle of the night or how a messy eater Jeri was.

It changed when his great granddad told him that he was now old enough to help his parents take care of Jeri. His great granddad had also told him that it was up to him in the coming years to protect his little sister from being bullied.

That was about ten months ago and he still remembers what his great granddad had told him. He frowns as he watches Jeri hold onto her bed to stand up. He's at a small desk drawing a picture of what he thinks a stone drake is. He wonders if he should go and get his dad. For Jeri falls down and hurts herself, he'll wish that he did.

Frowning as Jeri then lets go of the bed and then takes steps away from the bed. He sighs as she walks over to him and then says, "No!" He blinks at this. He cocks his head to his right and watches as Jeri opens her mouth and repeats the word. "No! No! No, no, no!" He then says, "Shhhhh! I'm drawing here. Go and play with your blocks!" Then Jeri then says loudly, "Koichi!"

He just stops and stares at his little sister. He was stunned at the fact that she knows a new word. Jeri knows the words mom, dad, yes, and no. Now she knows his name.

He's now five years old and has been for five for six months. His sister's birthday was two months away. He was already thinking about what to get her for her birthday. He sighs and takes Jeri by the hand. He opens the door and then heads down stairs.

He finds his dad in the kitchen and his dad looks up. "Koichi! Why did you bring Jeri down stairs." Then Jeri says, "Koichi!" His dad just stares at his little sister and the lets his jaw drop. Jeri then repeats the name, "Koichi!"

He looks proudly at his dad and says, "She knows my name. So, can we go outside to play?" His dad sighs and remembers what he told him about three months ago. It was along the lines of when Jeri says his name was when they're aloud to play outside, unsupervised. His dad recovers and just sighs. His dad gets up and opens the door to the backyard. He grins at his dad and takes Jeri outside and begins to point at things to get her to repeat the names.

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He's now eight years old and he's trying to sleep in. He had a late night last night. He hears someone open the door and he hopes that she'll just turn around and leave. He waits for it and soon feels and hears someone get onto the bed.

He cracks an eye open and finds Jeri crawling towards him. He closes his eye and mentally sighs. He wonders why nobody has shown up yet to get Jeri out of here. He then summons some chakra and tries to stick Jeri to the bed, it didn't work.

For then Jeri jumps up and yells, "Koichi! It's wakie, wakie time!" He groans and opens his eyes and grunts, "I don't need to get up now, Jeri. Go bug mom and dad." Then he closes his eyes and then Jeri says something that really wakes him. "But mom and dad left when a messenger came for them. It's just you and me!"

He sits up and looks Jeri in the eye. "Just you and me? I guess I can walk you to school." He then gets out from under the sheets and rolls up his matt. Jeri just sits on the floor and watches as he then puts on some pants and a shirt.

He then looks at his little sister and motions for her to walk out of the room. He then follows her out of his room. He also stops and then turns to get his wooden dagger set. He strap them to his left hip and then grabs a belt and pouch with three scrolls that he had been assigned to study.

He walks into the kitchen and then races to stop Jeri from touching the frying pan. She pouts a bit as she then sits at the table. He grins at Jeri and then checks to see if the eggs were ready. They were and he turns off the fire and cuts the eggs up. Then puts the places two eggs on his sister's plate and three on his own. He then puts a lid onto the pan as he sets the pan back onto the oven.

He then takes out some juice from the ice-chilled box. A simple jutsu was used to keep it cool. It was also easy to renew, for all you had to do is send some chakra to the simple symbol. It's one of the many things chakra is used for. He hopes to one day learn just how to caste such jutsus.

He takes out of some glasses and pours some juice into the two glasses. Then he puts the juice back into the box. Then he turns and picks up the glasses and sets them onto the table. They each pick up a fork and a knife. Then they dig into their meal.

Soon they finish the eggs and he puts the plates by the plates. The eggs weren't that filling, but lunch would be. He then waits for his sister at the front door. Soon his sister came into the area with her homework. He grins as Jeri smiles happily at him. He sighs as he opens the door and then walks out.

They soon walk to where the school is. His age group was learning how to work by night for the last month. But that still didn't stop his baby sister from deciding to wake him up in the mornings though. He had a good five more months like it and he hopes that Jeri gives it up. He really would like to get good nights sleep.

As they are in sight of the school, he stops and turns to his left. As he watches a man in a green cloths comes racing from that direction. He just stares as the man then notices Jeri and him. "The seedlings of youthful fire! O how great this village is from just looking at such young children! It reminds me of why I choice to become a teacher!" The strange green cloth man says as he stops in front of them. Jeri just giggles and he just blinks owlishly. Jeri then says, "You're funny!" The tall green man just sighs and then, he swears that this happened when asked by the elders, the man just summons a background with a sun on it with red lines coming out of the red sun. He watches as what looks like fire coming out of the guy's eyes. "What burning passion! I can't wait to get back home and confront my eternal rival! Now, could one of you please tell me where I am?" The whole background thing and fires disappears as he asks the last part.

Before he could say anything, Jeri answers, "You're in Light village. I'm Jeri Geo and this is my older brother Koichi Geo." The green man then looks depress for he hunches over and everything looks gloomy around the odd man.

Jeri then moves to comfort the man. But as soon Jeri puts a comforting hand on the man's shoulder, some people that he knows are professional ninja show up. The odd man soon is on the run with his sister in his arms. He just stares dumbly at where the man took off. He just stands there as the ninja also take off to where the green guy raced off.

He shakes his head and soon takes off after them. He wasn't going to disappoint his parents or his great granddad. He can't jump as high as most or stick to the walls either. He could begin to think on where his sister would direct the guy, for if it was on thing that he's proud of is knowing where his sister likes to hide.

He heads for where the pool training area is. His little sister hadn't visited for a while and it's an odd place to get to. For the pools had large water beetles living there. His sister likes to watch the three-foot long water beetles swim around. He hopes that some of the rumors that he heard weren't true. For if they were, then it's not just three-foot beetles living in those waters. He just hopes that he gets there in time to warn them.

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She giggles as she watches as Gai walks around on the top of the water's surface. There weren't as many three-foot long beetles as she remembers. She watches as some of the water beetles swim in circles around Gai.

She knows that nobody but Koichi knows that she likes to hide. She then watches as the beetles all scatter from where Gai was walking in circles. Then Gai stops and jumps out of the way as something tries to ambush him. She takes a sharp breath as she catches a glimpse of some kind of lizard.

She couldn't help but frown at the sighting. Then she turns to see her brother standing behind her. "So the rumors are true …" She hears Koichi say. She looks at him and asks, "What rumors?" Koichi sighs and answers, "Just a rumor about something feeding off the beetles." She looks our raged at hearing this. "What did the beetles do to get eaten?" Koichi smiles a bit at this and answers, "You remember that time with that spider?" She looks puzzled at this but nods. "Same thing happening with the beetles. Only a large lizard." Her brother informs her. "O" she says.

Then turns to watch as Gai deal with that lizard. It's a good six-feet long and was dark green with yellow spots on it's back. It's tail looked like it was growing, almost like something took a good chunk out of the tip of the tail.

Gai was just toying with the lizard, for he'd only dodge at the last second. They just watched as the lizard changes its tactics. As it surfaces with it's mouth open and Gai dodges it. The lizard snaps his tail like a whip, this catches Gai by surprise. This sends Gai to shore and the lizard then picks up speed to get to Gai before he has time to recover.

Then a wooden dagger lands in the lizard's way. It's then followed with another two begin thrown. She turns to see her brother with another three wooden daggers in his left hand, ready to throw them. She grins at her brother and then turns to watch as Gai gets up. "My thanks! Now to finish this off!" The man seems to vanish and in a blink of an eye, the lizard is send flying a good mile away. The lizard is knocked out and Gai poses.

Suddenly many ninjas appear out of nowhere and surround Gai. "Well, it was fun while it lasted." Was all Gai would say. She turns to her brother to give his a hopeful look. Koichi just sighs as he puts his wooden daggers away. He sends her a small grin and she sighs, knowing full well that there was nothing that they could do for Gai.


	3. Chapter 3

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking'

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 3

He stares at the council of elders of Light village. He had been on a mission that claimed that a missing Nin by the name Vorse Umeon, ex-Earth ninja. He had encountered really odd beasts that used chakra, and from what he can tell they weren't demons too. He's lucky to have been found by those miners. They had handed him over to some people who were clearly ninja. This ninja didn't have a headband, so doesn't know which village that he was in. For all he knows, this village could be housing a really important weapon.

It was his luck to not understand what they were saying until they used this jutsu on him. Then he could understand what was being said. It was just as they finish healing him, did he decide to make his escape. But he didn't head straight for the walls of the village. He knows that they would be heavily guarded, so he hoped to find a place to hide until he had more information.

Then he spotted those kids on the street. The girl was around six years old; she had reddish brown hair with hazel eyes. The boy was eight years old by his reckoning. He had to frown for the blond hair and blue eyes tug at his memory. He learned the this village was called Light and that the girl's name is Jeri Geo and the boy's name is Koichi Geo.

When he had been acting the fool, the girl had tried to comfort him. He scents the ninja coming and without thinking about it, he grabbed the girl and took off. He followed her directions to a training ground. To his shock, he found that the girl was quite right about the three-foot long water beetles. He was stunned at the size of the beetles and he decided to take a closer look at the beetles. He found that they were perfectly natural.

Then that lizard appeared. He had gotten careless concerning the lizard. He was stunned to see a wooden dagger get thrown in the lizard's path. Then a pair of them. He saw out of the corner of his eye the boy Koichi ready to throw another three.

By the end of the fight, he knew that he was surrounded. He gave up, for he didn't want the two children to witness him fighting this village's ninja. He was happy that the children didn't seem to be under arrest for helping him.

The council of elders was talking about him, but he was problem under a jutsu. So he just has to wait. He also notices that one old elder seems to carry a lot of weight. He guesses that, from the way the elder eyes didn't seem to meet anyone in the eye, that she must be blind.

He wonders if there was a leader in this village as there is for his village. As he muses over that, the council finishes talking and soon the jutsu he was under lifts. The elder to the old woman begins, "It's odd. Usually when one comes from the northern lands, they attack in hopes of riches and then try their luck to get back home. You were seen with two of students. But you didn't use either as a hostage. For this reason, we're willing to hear your side on this." He blinks at this, for he has known villages that would prefer to torture to get information out of enemies. He could get to like this place.

"I was on a mission to retrieve a missing Nin from hidden Earth. The information that I received was that he was heading to this mountain range. I then decided to see if I could locate this Nin. But I didn't anything but freaky beasts that could use chakra. I think you might know more about those creatures then I." He pauses and then continues, "I don't really know how, but I got found by some people that seem to scream miners. I think you know the rest." He finishes speaking.

He watches as some of the elders smirk about this. The others just give them sour looks and then the woman that sits by the speaker decides to speak. "Sounds that you were lucky to be alive. From what the report say, you have a nasty encounter with a pack of ice elementals." He blinks at that. He has heard about a group elementals running wild, but given it much thought. He had to agree with the elder woman on that one. She continues, "We might as well tell you now, the child with the fox demon sealed in him is being raised in this village." Now his jaw drops at this and his mind goes numb. Many villagers believe that the baby had been killed, but a few think that someone stole him to raise as a weapon to use against Leaf. He never had an opinion on which was true. Now he was not only faced with an unknown village, but also with the simple fact that the child was here, in this city. "I want to you swear that you'll try not to steal him. I have much to teach him about how to make contact with his houseguest. I also have a demon sealed within me. I can teach what you ninja can't. Is that understood?" He just blinks at the blind elder. Then he swallows and answers, "I swear." She nods and a smile spreads across her face. He feels a bit better. "I am elder Ruki. To my left is elder Horus, he's granddaughter and her husband have been raising Koichi as their own. I believe you've meet Koichi and his little sister Jeri." He sighs, now knowing why Koichi reminded him of something. He couldn't see the whisker marks on the boy's cheeks, for the boy was quite tanned.

Then elder Ruki again speaks, "If you wish, you can remain here as a member of our ninja. You can receive missions and when it's a safer season for you to leave, you'll have a guide to take you safely through the mountain range." She finishes and he then decides to ask, "Could I perhaps teach a team of rookies?" It was elder Horus that answers, "If that's what you wish, then I don't see why not. We have a team that needs a teacher; they have mostly been passed around from three teachers already. I'll have them meet you at the school after lunch. Gulau will be showing you around, I think that this season will be interesting. Good luck, Gai."

Then all the council members get up and begin to leave. He turns to find a man with a red line running over his right eye. It was a tattoo, and it also had a series of green dots in the line. Gulau's eye color was light blue with brown rim. Gulau's hairstyle was simple, for except for a patch of braided hair, his head was shaved. The remaining hair was light brown. Gulau was not as tall as him, but then how many people were six-feet tall? Gulau had a short sword on his right hip and then a pouch of daggers on his left hip.

He grins at Gulau and Gulau just smirks and the motions for him to follow. Soon they were chatting about equipment. He soon returns to acting the idiot. He wonders just what kind of team he signed up to teach.

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It's been a good month since Gai first appeared in Jeri's and his life. He's also been going to see elder Ruki for lessons. He still remember how he first learnt about Blood Trail, the nine-tailed fox demon sealed in him.

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He had just made sure that Jeri got to school and then he follows his uncle to see elder Ruki. He didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't even about the odd green cloth man. Has he enters the study with Ruki at the desk; he was kind of scared and nervous as well.

The door closes behind him and he continues to walk towards the chair in front of the desk. Then he pulls it out and sits on it. He waits for elder Ruki to say something. They just sit in the silence that hangs between them.

After a good five minutes, elder Ruki says, "Well, I believe that I better get this over with. I've been putting this off for a good year, but better late then never." He wonders what elder Ruki means by that. Elder Ruki then continues, "Did you ever wonder why you have such a good memory?" He looks puzzled, he answers, "Not really." Ruki smiles a bit at this. "It's because you have a guest in you." He blinks at this and the asks, "Guest? Like a parasite?" Elder Ruki chuckles at this and says, "More like hidden friend then parasite. You see, you have a nine-tailed fox demon seal inside of you. In a vision, we watched as this fox was sealed inside of you. You were stolen as a two-week-old baby. Your father, Ravis, stole you from the village that was under attack by this nine-tailed fox."

He was stunned at this; he just kind of stared at the elder. "So, didn't this village want me?" He asks in a soft voice. The elder sighs and says, "They didn't know what you really were. There are people out there that don't have our knowledge. From what rumors your father heard during his time there, it seems that they wanted to kill you out right. This idea of killing you was made in fear and hatred. You were a gift from Heaven; you were to be that villages greatest hope. But with Ravis hearing about this a good year before the great fox attacked, he wanted to go and steal you. For his argument was that you could learn more here, then at that village. He was very much right, so he traveled to the northern lands to get you. In time, you might decide to go to the village of your birth, but that time is not here or now. I'll be teaching you how to speak with your guest and on how to handle the chakra that your guest will give you." He thinks about this and nods his head.

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He sighs as he remembers that first meeting and lesson. He sighs at what he learnt from elder Ruki. Talked to his dad about it, and learnt a great more about the lands north. He was happy he was growing up here, for, from the sounds of it. The northern ninja villages were always at war, over missions or clients. He didn't really get why they would want to attack and kill other humans, but shrugs it off. It might have something to do with him not having any of the chakra-using creatures. He has heard of summoning contracts, but they didn't really count as native creatures.

He sighs and watches as Jeri talks with Gai about her day at school. It seems that Jeri and Gai had a budding relationship. He knows that Gai had a team of rookies to teach and train. He also heard that Gai had some unusual training ideas. Not that he's one to listen to every little rumor, though. It was mostly because of the simple fact that Gai was just plain weird. Gai was also becoming fast friends with many of the village ninja.

He just sighs and returns to reading the scroll that elder Ruki wants him to read. It was about the difference between Oni and demons. Oni was a subtype of demons that in time began to take the shape of humans. Also Oni didn't have the same lifespan of demons, for they breed on this plane of existence. Also Oni were more common then demons, for they can breed very easily, it only takes a baby Oni a good two years to mature and most female Oni could breed every three years and have as many as three babies. Also, if food was scare, they turn on their own really quickly. So by keeping the Omi in the mountains, they keep them from breeding like rats. Good thing to remember.


	4. Chapter 4

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking'

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 4

He watches as Gai's three-man team gets ready. He then turns to look at his classmates. He sighs and rechecks the number of wooden daggers and then his night glasses. They've been training at night for a good three months now and when Gai suggested a combined training between his rookies and then classes of students.

Tonight it was his classes turn to try and take the scroll from Sora, Yama, and Mimi. He can't wait to give it a try. He feels a hand on his right shoulder. He turns to find Terish behind him. He's not surprised that he didn't hear Terish come up behind him for Terish's learnt how to move around from his parents and older sister. Terish Leopard is three inches taller then him and his hair is dye green with brown lines. It's a family tradition for the Leopard clan.

Terish's hazel eyes meet his and Terish says, "So, which way do you think we should head?" He and Terish were on the same team with Yue. His class had been divided into three man teams. But the main goal was the same for every team. Also if they want, they could make alliance with other teams. He thinks about it as Yue walks over.

Yue was shorter then Terish but taller then him. Yue Fufu has a wooden shield on his right arm. Yue also has a twin sister by the name of Rudy. Yue and Rudy were like night and day, with Yue being the night and Ruby being the day. Yue was quiet and reserved. Yue's hair is shorter then Rudy's and is already turning white. Yue's eye color is green and he likes to have two double-headed wooden swords on his back.

He waits for Yue to be with them before answering, "By the rocky hill. Alright with you?" Yue nods and Terish says, "Fine with me." They then put on their glasses and watch as Sora, Yama, and Mimi race off into the training area in front of them. Then after a good thirty minutes, they were aloud to take off after them.

Yue takes point and Terish and him just follow Yue's lead. It takes them twenty minutes to reach the spot. Then they begin to plan, Yue's idea was for them to stick around here and set up paper wards around this area and wait. Terish's idea was to go out and find other team and then hunt the rookies down. As much as he likes Terish's idea, he kind of likes Yue's idea better. First of all, Gai's team doesn't want to confront his classmates and therefore, they'd be moving all over this area, even come their way. And for another thing, they had would be rested when Sora and them come their way.

So they set up the paper wards on the trees and then sat down and waited. Terish and him did talk in low tones about school and about other things. Then a silence settles over the group.

He begins to think about what Gai's description of Leaf was like. For according to Gai, Leaf had a lot of pipes going between buildings. It sounds so unlike Light village. This whole city was made by a rock jutsu. The original sections of the city are still around. As the population grew, they then used that same rock jutsu to make more buildings and to change where the wall surrounding the village as well. The last time they used that rock jutsu was a hundred years ago. Every since then, they've been using wood for new buildings. The rock buildings were now housing shops, crafts, and as storage houses. There was also jutsus used to keep blood-sucking bugs from entering the village. It's said that the elders and researchers were trying to come up with a weather control Jutsu to put over the village.

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He and his cell head to the area that they haven't visited this night. They choice this place for last for the simple fact that Mimi could then just a rock jutsu that she know to hide them under the rocky hill. He grins slightly, for he had to admit that their new teacher was original. But that's due more from the fact that Gai wasn't trained here. They had surprised their teacher by the level of chakra control and by just how good they worked together.

They soon arrive at the hill and they all sigh in relief. They've gone through this with four times already. This was their fifth time and he didn't know if he should be glad that this was their last time doing this or sad for it's the cells last time training in the village.

Then they were under attack but a group. He blocked a kick and then a punch. That's when he leaps out of the way, only to find in trapped by some roots. He wasn't the only one trapped by said roots. It was then that they got a good look at the team that were attacking them. He just sighs as the one with white beginning to show searches his pouches. Two other searched Mimi and Sora's pouches.

Then one with the bandana finds the scroll that Mimi was carrying. Then a turtle appears and he and his teammates just groan at what's about to happen. The turtle 'speaks' in their teacher's voice. Soon their teacher appears on the turtle's shell in one of his teacher's favorite poses. He and his teammates just tone out the whole speech and just wait for the jutsu to run out. It soon does and they land on the ground and then stand up.

After Gai finishes his rant, he decides to ask, "Just who are you?" The green hair kid answers for the team. "I'm Terish Leopard. The one with the bandana is Koichi Geo and the white haired one is Yue Fufu." He just shakes his head a bit at that. He remembers Terish's older sister well, for they had a good three missions with her and her teammates. Terish's sister is one Xia Leopard and she was also two years older then he, he's thirteen.

He just sighs and they then walk out of this area. He couldn't help but grin at the simple fact that they let down their guard and at how well this group took advantage of that.

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He sighs as he takes one last look at this village that has become his second home. He's been at this village for a good six months and it was time for him to leave. But he had learnt some very interesting jutsus in those months. One was how to do a mass teleportation form one area to one that he's marked. He has learnt more about chakra control and even a few jutsu casted on some of the items that this village uses. This place doesn't have electricity, so they learnt how to use jutsu in every day things.

He sighs as he looks into Jeri's eyes. He will be missing her the most. He messes with Jeri's hair and says, "Keep your fire burning bright! I'll return again! The great green beast of Leaf shall return to the Light!" Jeri cracks a small smile and nods.

He then turns to look at Koichi, Jeri's adopted brother. He had to admit that the kid was something special. It was Koichi and his teammates that got the scroll from Yama and his teammates. He can't wait to report to the third about how well Koichi's doing. In this village, Koichi was able to have a normal life, far from those that would hate him for having the demon sealed in him.

Soon he turns to face the road and to his guide, Ravis. Ravis is Koichi and Jeri's father. Soon they were on their way. He knows that he'll be back; this place was now a part of him. He could see why the village was named Light. It was untouched by human wars and by human greed. This village makes war on chakra-using beasts and on Oni. He still remembers his first glimpse of an eight-foot tall Oni. His first Oni kill was a dark purple skinned male with five horns growing out of his head. In a way, the Oni looks to be mockeries of humans. An Oni's blood was red when that Oni is a live and is purplish black when died. It was a good think to remember, for battling against them.

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He's bored, for guard duty at night is very boring and very dangerous. He turns to his partner, a Hyuuga. He sees the sour expression on his face and just turns right back to the road.

After ten minutes, the Hyuuga tells him, "Get ready. Someone is coming." He looks startled and then straightens up. Soon a gust of wind appears and he uses his right hand to cover his eyes. He then finally is staring at a man in a green jumpsuit. "Gai Maito reporting in!" The man says.

His jaw drops and he just didn't know what to make of the man in front of him. He heard that Gai left on a mission and he just seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. Now after so many months, it seems that the green beast of Leaf has returned. He looks at his partner and then he nods and heads to report to the third about this.

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He sighs, it's his sister's birthday and he was getting impatient. He's job was to keep his little sister busy while his parents and uncle gets everything ready for the surprise party. It's his sister's ninth birthday and he can't wait for the party to start, for Gai was also back.

It's Gai third visit since Gai first lived here. The friendship between his sister and this really odd man had long since grown stronger. For Gai treats Jeri like a daughter or niece. He had to grin at the first time Gai returned to Light village. Jeri was seven then and it was for a festival of The Raptor year. They the honored guest was one of the members of race called _Fell'Tor$_.

The _Fell'Tor$_ were a race of intelligent bird-like race. They didn't have wings, but three fingered claws. They stood between four and a half feet tall and five and a half feet tall. The females were easy to spy, for they had more feathers on their head then the colorful males. _Fell'Tor$_ are an ancient race; they had scales and sharp teeth. On their middle toe there was a large claw that is kept raised. _Fell'Tor$_ colors were from dark brown to tan. They could have spots or stripes of a different color and for their feathers the colors are bright then for their scales. The males as adults have bright reds, oranges, blues, and even whites. The female's feathers were more like light browns, darker reds, blues, and greens. Life spans of _Fell'Tor$_ were a good eighty years. Males reach adulthood at age eighteen and females at age twenty. The number of eggs that could be laid is from two to five. The eggs begin to hatch after two months of being laid.

He remembers clearly Gai's reaction to meeting Mi'Fo, the _Fell'Tor$_ guest. It's not often that the friendlier races come to visit their village. Gai had just posed and proclaimed that he was going to protect Jeri from the odd lizard. That was received with laughter from not only Mi'Fo, but by everyone else. His dad took Gai aside to explain just what Mi'Fo was and why he was honored guest. It seems that nobody remembered to tell Gai about the friendly races, but then those races don't visit too often. Most of the trading was done by human traders and often far away from human territory.

**To Readers:**

If you think that the _Fell'Tor$_ sound like raptors, that's because they are. Hope you like the description of that race. And as for spelling error and grammar, spell check can only do so much. Nice to see so many liking this story.


	5. Chapter 5

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking'

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 5

He watches as his younger sister picks through sets of metal weapons. He can't help but grin at the look on his sister's face. That serious look really didn't suit her. He then hears Ruby talking to a group of her friends. He watches as they pass by the shop, still not seeing him or his sister.

Finally he sees Yue trailing behind them and he reaches out and pulls the white haired kid into the shop. Yue eyes flash dangerously until Yue finds himself looking into his face. Yue smiles a bit and says, "Hey." "Hey yourself, Yue. Bored?" He says, letting his smile grow. Yue sighs and asks, "So, what are you doing here?" He motions to his little sister. "O" Was all Yue would say. He snorts, Yue hasn't changed much since the time they got that scroll. They have grown up and have learnt more jutsus and have more control over their chakra.

He also could handle more of Blood Trail's chakra as well. He has learnt more about how to connect up to this planes chakra's reserves. All demons that cross over into this plane of existence take most of their start up chakra from that reserve, and then they are cut off. Since he was human, he could connect up to this reserve for as long as he wishes, but it's tiring to do so. So he mostly uses his own chakra or if the training calls for it, he uses some of Blood Trail's chakra. Demons doesn't have jutsus like humans, they mostly really good at chakra control and use it to make what they want happen.

His sister then notices Yue and waves to her. "Hey Yue! It's my birthday today!" Jeri says in a cheerful voice. Yue blinks and waves back to Jeri. "Then happy birthday Jeri." Yue says softly. He just rolls his eyes, Yue could be so shy at moments it could be so unbelievable. Terish and him had been working with Yue to change that, but it's slow going. That night so long ago had made them friends.

Soon he checks the time and finds it a bit after. "Time to go, Jeri. Nice to see you at class tomorrow, Yue." He says as he takes Jeri's left hand and walks out the door. "Bye Koichi, you too Jeri." Yue says. "Bye Yue!" Jeri says. They watch as Yue then heads to where his twin sister and her friends were walking.

It takes them twenty-four minutes to get home. He lets Jeri walk head of him. He watches as Jeri then opens the door and walks into the house. He then hears, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JERI!" He then comes up from behind and guides her into the house. Jeri's really stunned at how many people were at her party. Then Gai comes into the room from the kitchen.

"My favorite girl is now a full year older! I've come to celebrate and I bring three scrolls on fire jutsus!" Gai says as he poses some more. Everyone had long since gotten use to this. He just rolls his eyes and finds a spot to sit.

Jeri's friends were here and they were crowding around Gai to listen to his stories. He looks over at his great granddad and his uncle Tori. Uncle Tori is his dad's younger brother. Either his dad's or mom's parents were alive. Tori wasn't married either, so Jeri and him didn't have any cousins.

This day was for his sister; he didn't want to ruin it. So he decided check to see if Blood Trail, only to find him sleeping. He then decided to speak with his dad about which weapons that Jeri had been looking at.

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He watches as the gates to Leaf come into view. He then turns to look to his right to see Terish's reaction to this place. They have been traveling for five days and they were soon going to be in hidden Leaf soon. They made it all this way by using a mass teleportation jutsu that Gai set up.

Nine kids were asked to spend a year in hidden Leaf. Terish, Yue, and him were chosen out of his age group to go to Leaf. The six others were already rookies and were with their teachers. The rookies were also wearing some headband with the symbol of a feather on it. It was the one that the council of elders voted on.

They would be going to the same school with kids their own age. They were going to have some lessons from the teachers of the rookies once a week. School for Leaf was going to start next week, which was the first week of September.

He looks over at where Gai was talking with Shiro and Yoko, the teachers of the rookies. He then turns his head a bit more and checks up on the others. Yue was talking with Cheza, what about he didn't know. He then turns his head to look at the gates.

He then hears Terish say, "I wonder how pale this people will be." He grins at this and says, "I wonder just how weak they are." Terish and him exchange glances and smirk. They were going to enjoy this.

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He watches as other kids his age begin to file out of the room. Their test was going to be held tomorrow. It's been interesting taking classes with these northerners. He also found it funny how so many girls chase after that Sasuke.

He watches as Yue and Terish practice a game of chakra war by using a stick. The object of this was to see who could make the stick touch the person opposite of them. Not only do they need to push the stick, they have to make sure not to break the stick. So far, Yue was winning. He grins as this. They were more like high-level genin or low-level chunin then students. They even have more ranks then Light has. Like rookies were called genin and if his mom were here, she would rank as a Kage. His dad was what his village calls Dor'Sharp. It was like jonin but few jonin could match a Dor'Sharp, for in his village, they have teach chakra control sooner then Leaf and they were also more rounded in what jutsus they know and use. But then the enemies that they fight were very different then what this ninja fight.

He turns to watch the last kid walk out the door and he then begins to speak with Blood Trail. He still has much to learn and he also knows that the fox like to chat with someone. Most of the students won't become genin, for he remembers what Gai once told his little sister.

Soon he is traveling through his mind until he comes to a cave. He then walks into that cave and soon is standing in front of a huge gate. He waits for Blood Trail to acknowledge him. Soon he hears a snort and a pair of red eyes open. He watches as a huge head rises up as well. "About time you came, what kept you?" The great fox asks. "I didn't want anyone trying to bother me when I'm here. Yue and Terish know better then to try and talk to me when I'm like this. I didn't want out time together cut short because of some stupid kid wanting to talk to me." He tells the fox. He could see that he answered rightly, for Blood Trail didn't mention it again. "Better late then never I guess." The fox states in amused voice and he then waits for Blood Trail to continue.

After a few minutes the fox then continues. "You have your test tomorrow. We'll be reviewing everything you know right now." He nods at these and soon he is answering questions that Blood Trail asks.

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They watch as the sun rises and he looks over at Koichi and Terish. They look like they were rechecking their stuff. He is just as nervous as they were, but didn't feel the need to recheck his short swords or his shield. He didn't know what to think right now. He was taking a test in a land far from where they grew up. He had notice the glares that Koichi got from the adults around here and didn't get how they blame Koichi for what Blood Trail did. But then again, this people could be so blind to the simple fact that things could be worst then what they were. Like having some other village declare open war on them at the worst possible moment.

He sighs and he really misses his twin sister Ruby. They might not get along as well as Koichi and Jeri, but she was his twin, a part of him. He did have to admit that he has grown use to not having her around. Or sharing his room with her or having to keep going through his cloths to make sure that everything of his was there.

He ran a hand through his white hair. His clan entire clan tends to have their hair go white as they get older, but his began to change when he was very young. They did have this bloodline that lets them turn beastly, it's rare ability. He has this ability, it actived when he was seven years old. His nails grew and became sharp. His eyes turned green and silted. Fur grew along his back and his child muscles raced with strength. He remembers how well his night vision had been and what he could smell and hear. He had been burning with energy and so free…

He closes his eyes as he thinks about it. He has seen Kiba and knew that what Kiba's clan jutsus were like, they couldn't match him as a Garou. He has long since learnt how to control the change and all that power. He might not be able to do certain jutsus as a Garou, but that's why there was family ones made for someone like him. His eyes remained green ever since his first change.

He opens his eyes to see Shiro walking toward them. Koichi and Terish stop looking at their metal daggers and wait for Shiro to speak. Shiro then addresses them. "Usually this test would be your first killing of an Oni, but since there are no Oni this far north, you'll combined with a team to pass a test. When their teachers test the new genin, you'll join one of cells and pass the jonin's test." The all blink at this and it was Terish that speaks for their group. "Did you guys get too lazy to come up with a test?" They watch as Shiro just sighs and scratches the back of his head. Meaning that they had, they look at each other and then all sigh as one. They got ready for nothing!

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He watches as a group of girls all eye the spot to his right. One Sasuke sits to his right and on the other side of Sasuke was Yue. Some how, Sasuke managed to get to this seat when he was chatting with Blood Trail. He had a feeling that Yue might have pitied the poor guy too.

When a girl with pink hair came up to him to ask him to move, he just glared at the girl. The girl then just retreated away from him and he just shakes his head. He didn't get why they seem to decide to focus on Sasuke when they should be focusing on their training. He had a feeling that Jeri could take out the whole class without being totally exhausted. He just wants this over with.

Soon Iruka is in the room and everyone takes their seats. Soon Iruka begins to talk about how hard this next part of their training will be as genin. He just tones it out, for it didn't really mean anything to him. He knows what dangers him and his friends would be facing. Their year was almost up and they'll be facing Oni and other chakra-using beasts.

Soon Iruka begins to name that goes with what team. Terish went with Kiba, Hinata, and Shino. Then him with Sasuke, some girl named Sakura, and a kid by the name of Ganmaru. Yue with some girl named Ino, Sikamaru, and some fat guy.

Soon lunch comes around and he takes off. He eats with Terish and Yue then they just hang out for a bit before heading back to the classroom. He also begins to think about that Ganmaru kid.

Ganmaru is taller then most of the class with brown hair and brown eyes. Ganmaru is also older then him, Ganmaru is fourteen years old. He was hard pressed to list any jutsus that he remembers Ganmaru showing other then the basics.

Soon everyone leaves with their teacher, leaving that pink haired girl from this morning and the two other boys. He just watches as the girl tries to talk to Sasuke. Finally he decides to say something, "Why do you bug him? He doesn't want to talk to you and you can't make him. Just leave him be." He finds Sasuke look startled at him and the girl's jaw was hanging open. Ganmaru adds, "There's nothing wrong with just leaving him be, Sakura. Though, I am wondering why you're here, Koichi."

They all turn to him and he answers, "It's my test." From the looks of things they didn't get this so he adds, "You think it's just that easy to become genins? Your jonin teacher will be testing you to see if you'll actually become genins. I'm to take this test with you." It was then Sasuke that asks, "How do you know so much about this?" "I heard about it from one Gai Maito and from Shiro." He answers. This causes the others to look at each other, clearly at a lost on what to say or make of this.


	6. Chapter 6

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking'

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 6

He watches Koichi out of the corner of his eye. He had never known what to make of him or his friends. They came from a previously unknown village and seem to know more jutsus then their teacher. He wonders just what they have been taught for they always seem to learn things without putting much effort into it.

He then mentally sighs as another five minutes pass without their teacher arriving. It's been almost three hours and other then Sakura and Ganmaru pressing Koichi for more information, nothing really happened.

He wonders just what their teacher is like. He hopes that the jonin has a really good excuse. He also was thinking about just what kind of test their teacher will be giving them. So he was going over the Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, and Taijutsu that he knows. He finds that they weren't much; he also thinks that Koichi knows more of those three jutsus then this entire room of people.

The door opens and he looks at a man with a mask on as well as one of his eyes covered. The man then looks at each of them, then says, "My first impression is … one too many." He couldn't help but blink at that.

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He just stares around at the roof of the building. Ganmaru and Sakura were looking nervously at their new teacher. He couldn't tell that with Sasuke though. But then, Sasuke reminded him of a statue. He looks at the jonin that was going to be testing them.

The man had silver hair and has his left eye covered with his headband. The lower part of his face was covered up too. The vest was standard jonin vest and on the hands were fingerless gloves with metal on the back of them.

The jonin breaks the silences that had settled over the group. "Now, I'd like you all to tell us a little about yourselves." The teacher asks. "Like what?" Ganmaru asks. Kakashi then answers, "The usual, your favorite thing … what you hate the most. Dreams, ambitions, hobbies. Things like that." Sakura then says, "Why don't you start? You're a complete stranger to us." Ganmaru then adds, "Yea, you're a complete mystery. Well you and Koichi." Sakura nods in agreement with Ganmaru.

He was amused that they thought that way. It's not like too many kids wanted to get close to him and his friends. They figured it had something to do with the fact that they never walked up to and started a conversation with any of them. It wasn't that they didn't see any point in trying to make friends; it was mostly because they wanted the others to make the first move.

Jonin then starts to talk about himself. "My name is Kakashi Hatake. I'm the kind of person who doesn't feel like talking about his likes and dislikes! My dreams for the future are none of your business … but anyway, I have lots of hobbies …" He hears Sakura say to Ganmaru, "So, we just learnt his name…" Ganmaru just nods.

"Now, who want's to go first?" Kakashi asks. Sakura begins, "I'm Sakura Haruno. My favorite thing is … well it's not a thing, it's a person. A boy … and that boy is …" Sakura sends a look at Sasuke. The continues, "Let's move on to my dream." Sakura looks at Sasuke and then blushes.

Ganmaru and him just sigh at this. Then Ganmaru begins, "My name is Ganmaru Agaka. I'm fourteen years old and my favorite thing is learning water jutsus and swimming. My dislikes are Genjutsu and owls. My dreams for the future are to learn some ice jutsus."

His liking for Ganmaru just went up. Then Sasuke begins, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are plenty of things I hate, but I don't see that it matters, considering there's almost nothing I do like." Sasuke then pauses, then continues, "It seems pointless to talk about 'dreams'… that's just a word … but what I do have is determination. I plan to restore my clan. And there's someone I have sworn … to kill."

He watches as Ganmaru moves a bit away from Sasuke and how Sakura blushes a bit. He sighs and then begins to talk, "My name is Koichi Geo. My likes are hanging out with Yue and Terish. My hobbies are training with elder Ruki, with my friends, and with Blood Trail, the demon that's sealed in me." He pauses, as every eye is turn towards him. He didn't see any reason not to tell them about Blood Trail. He then continues, "I don't feel like talking about what I hate or about my dreams."

There was a long silence that follows just what he had said. Then Kakashi then breaks the silence by saying, "I think formal training will start tomorrow morning." Sakura then asks, "So there isn't a test?" Kakashi blinks at this and then look over at him. "They asked." He tells the jonin. Kakashi then says, "Ok then, the training will be the test. It's going to survival exercises. Meaning that you'll have to survive me." Kakashi pauses and Ganmaru asks, "So?" Kakashi then says, "The test we're about to take part in has a 66 rate of failure." Sakura then yells out, "Then what the point in graduating?" Ganmaru nods in agreement with Sakura. Kakashi answers, "Too weed out the weak. Out of your graduating class, only nine, or if you count the three others, twelve will be accepted as junior-level ninja. Then rest go back for more training." After a pause Kakashi then says, "Chickening out?" He then answers, "Not really. There are four of us and only one of you." Sasuke then adds, "I must agree with Koichi on this one."

Sakura and Ganmaru just stare dumbly at Sasuke, it is seems they didn't know just what to think. Then Kakashi takes out papers and hand one to each of them. "The details of your assignment are on the handout. Memorize it … and don't be late. And you might want to skip breakfast tomorrow, unless you want to throw up." Kakashi tells them after he hands the papers out. Then Kakashi leaves, leaving them alone on the roof.

He reads the handout, and then puts it into his pocket. He looks at the others then begins to walk towards the stairs. "Hey wait! Are you saying that you really do have a demon sealed in you?" Ganmaru says as he catches up to him. He stops and turns his head to look at Ganmaru. He just nods and Ganmaru then shallows and asks, "Can it, you know, possess you?" He snorts at that and answers, "What would have been the point in sealing it if it could?" "Good point! So, you'll be eating tomorrow?" Ganmaru asks. "I'll be needing all the energy I can get. Plus, if this guy was three hours late today, he might be late again tomorrow. What's the point in waiting and going hungry?" He tells Ganmaru truthfully. "Good point. I think I'll follow your lead on that." Then they turn to where Sasuke was and watches as Sasuke just jumps off the roof to get away from Sakura. He just shook his head at that and then, with Ganmaru following, walks down the stairs.

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He watches as Sakura tries to talk to Sasuke. He sees Koichi just sitting in a tree and then hears both Sasuke and Sakura's stomachs growl. He was really happy he talked to Koichi the other day. He had a large dinner and then breakfast. He does find it hard to believe that Koichi has a demon sealed up inside of him, but then, he doesn't really know too much about Light village. The only thing that he could think about was the simple fact that they train their kids really well.

It's been a good two and a half hours and the teacher still haven't shown up. He had already checked through his equipment three times already. He's nervous, but he figures that if he works with the other members of this cell, he had a good chance to pass this test.

He sits under a tree and just waits. Soon Sakura just gives up on trying to get Sasuke to talk. He didn't really pity Sakura, for he has heard about how her diet. He just snorts at that thought. He didn't see why so many girls think that dieting was going to help get Sasuke, but then, he wasn't into guys. He does have this part-time girlfriend though. He smiles on just thinking about her. Her name is Riley Shimoto. Riley is fourteen years old and likes to dye her hair blond. Riley is a bit taller then him and wasn't a ninja. Her family owns three apartment buildings. He can't wait to meet her for dinner tonight.

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His alarms went off. He checks the time and finds it to be three hours of waiting. He jumps down and walks to where Sasuke and Sakura have been standing since they got here. He glances at Ganmaru and then to the direction of where his alarms were set off.

After five minutes Kakashi appears. Sakura then yells, "Your late!" He couldn't help but roll his eyes at this. "Morning!" Was the only reply that Kakashi would give. Then Kakashi takes out an alarm clock and sets it up.

Kakashi then turns to them and says, "I've set this alarm to go off at noon. I also have three small bells. To get your lunch, you must take one of these bells from me before the alarm goes off. The one that doesn't get one, gets tied to a tree stump." Sakura and Sasuke's stomachs then growl at this. He just rolls his eyes at that and glances at Ganmaru. Ganmaru winks at him and then they both return to looking at the jonin.

Kakashi then continues, "Since there is only three bells, that means that one of you will find themselves tied to a tree stump. Plus, the one tied to the tree stump will fail." Kakashi then puts the bells onto this belt and says, "Attack as though you mean to kill or you'll nerve stand a chance." Then Sakura says, "But … but that's so dangerous!" He then says dryly, "I don't think a genin stands much chance of harming a jonin." That's the only real hint that he'll give them, he knows what this was all about. It's about teamwork and sacrifice. He knows that Ganmaru will be willing to work with him. It's Sakura and Sasuke that he knew were going to be difficult. Sakura will only be looking out for Sasuke and as for Sasuke; he has a feeling that Sasuke is thinking about going at it alone.

As Kakashi waits for them to object some more, then finding that nobody was going to speak up. Then Kakashi then says, "Go!" They leap away; he then makes his way to where Ganmaru was hiding. He had a good idea and he needs Ganmaru to help him with it. Knowing Sasuke, he'll be the last one to attack Kakashi. He does plan on getting all the bells and then make sure that Sakura and Sasuke in up with a bell each. He didn't need one, for this whole thing was more for Ganmaru and them. He was going to have some fun toying with Sasuke and Sakura.

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He sighs as he finish of Sakura with a Genjutsu. He might have over done it with it, but she was out cold. He sighs and then takes off to find the others. He wonders if Ganmaru and Koichi have teamed up. He already likes them for the fact that they didn't just take what he said yesterday at face value. And then today, Koichi even was kind enough to hint at the true goal of this test.

He hasn't got a chance to spar with any of the teachers form Light village, so he didn't know just what to expect from Koichi. He had been stunned when Koichi told them about the demon fox that was sealed up in him. He didn't know if it was a good thing that Koichi and the fox were on speaking terms. It also meant that Koichi was the more dangerous of this group, for he not only had unknown jutsus and really good chakra control but also access to the fox's chakra. If Koichi was to try and kill him, he hates to admit it, but Koichi could very much do just that. But he had a feeling that Koichi wasn't like that. If what Gai had talked about was true, then Light village don't kill humans often.

He sighs and finds Sasuke in a clearing. He was shocked to see that Sasuke was worn out. Then on turning to see him, Sasuke says, "Not this time!" And Sasuke charges him with a kunai in both hands.


	7. Chapter 7

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking'

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 7

He watches as his plan works out. They had toyed with Sasuke in the form of Kakashi. He needed Sasuke kind of pissed off and they had just made little comments about his family. It had worked and now Sasuke was doing what Ganmaru and him needed him to do. Which was having Kakashi focusing on him. He then nods to Ganmaru to start the water jutsu and then he begins on his root jutsu.

As Kakashi just dodges the attacks, Kakashi then steps onto the spot where he has been using his root jutsu. Soon the roots begin to warp themselves around Kakashi and Sasuke the gets blasted by the water jutsu. It snaps Sasuke out of his rage and then Ganmaru and him drop out of the trees. He then walks over to where Kakashi is being held by the roots and takes the bells he then tosses one to Ganmaru and then Sasuke. He then cancels the root jutsu. He could believe that it was that simple, but then, he doubts that Kakashi ever thought that he knows this jutsu or have ever seen one like it. For the roots were quite large.

As the roots go back into the ground, this releases Kakashi and the jonin then they wait for Kakashi to say something. He notices that Sasuke tried not to look too puzzled and it seems that he couldn't pass his bell to Sakura, for if his right, Kakashi had been stalking her. So, it seems that he's stuck with the bell.

Kakashi then just sighs and walks away. They follow and then hear the alarm go off. They made it with time to spare. He can't help but grin a bit at this. He wasn't even tired.

They watch as Sakura is tied to the tree stump and then they all just wait for her to get up. When Sakura wakes and sees Sasuke, she scream and tired to move. Then as they watch, it slowly dawns on her that she was the only one tied up. The face that she made just made him want to laugh. "Well, it seems that some of you know just what this whole thing was about. This whole thing was about teamwork!" Kakashi announces.

Sasuke only grunts a bit in surprise and Sakura's face falls at hearing this. Ganmaru smiles slightly at this and he just smirks. Kakashi then continues, "I know for a fact that Koichi and Ganmaru had already decided to team up from the start. The fact that they created a plan and that they understood how to get Sasuke to work with them without Sasuke know means that Koichi and Ganmaru have already passed this test. Now it's up to Sasuke and Sakura to try their luck against me. So, here." Kakashi brings out the three lunches. The jonin then hands one to Ganmaru, Sasuke, and to him. He sighs and could see where this was headed.

"Now, after you finish eating that Sasuke, you and Sakura will battle me. Now, don't feed Sakura." Kakashi says and then leaves. He and Ganmaru begin to eat their lunches and Sasuke just looks at his and then around the place. He can't give Sasuke or Sakura any help on this. Soon Sasuke just says, "Here, you're no good to me if you're hungry." Sasuke moves his lunch in front of Sakura. "But what about not feeding me! If Kakashi finds out." Sakura trails off. Sasuke just sighs and says, "I don't think he's around here. I don't sense him around here." Sakura then tears up and then Kakashi appears out of no where and says, "You pass!"

Sakura's jaw drops and Kakashi then explains, "Up till now, the two of you have only followed my orders. You acted like mindless drones. While Koichi and Ganmaru thought about the pros and cons of some of my orders. In a ninja's world, those who violate the rules and fail to follow are lower then garbage." Kakashi then pauses and stands straighter before continuing, "However, those who do not care for and support their fellows are even lower then that!" Then Kakashi turns around and says, "You all pass! Here's you headband, Koichi!" With that he carries his headband and Kakashi then walks away.

He grins as he then ties the headband on his head and then follows Kakashi example. He can't wait to find Terish and Yue and exchange stories with them. He hears the others walking behind him, but he feels like he's forgetting something …

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He sighs as he watches as Ganmaru and Terish talk. It's been a good month since he and his friends received their headbands and they don't have a regular teacher. He knows that Gai was busy with his team that passed last year. So, they have been training with one of the other cells their age.

He sighs and looks at their client. His name is Tazuna and he was a bridge builder. It was their job to protect him and so far, it has been interesting. First some Mist ninja attacked them and they found out that the man that wants Tazuna died was some rich guy. He sighs at hearing that, it was just another example at how different this northern land was to their home.

The fact that they were tagging along was simple. The Hokage thought that they were ready to leave the village. The fact that team 7 was coming with them was that this week was when they were doing missions with that cell.

They were coming into some mist. He frowns a bit and looks around. Then gets ready for an attack. Even Terish and Yue have their hands over their kunai pouch. They closed ranks around their client. He watches as a huge sword comes flying down. "Duck!" Kakashi yells and pulls Sakura down onto the ground with him. Then he looks to where the sword was and the figure on the hilt of the sword.

Then he looks to Yue as Yue scans the area. Then without warning, Yue takes off. "Well, it looks like there's a coward traveling with you." The man says. He snorts and answers, "Your friend should watch themselves. Yue is one hell of a tracker." Terish nods in agreement. The man looks stunned at this. Even Kakashi looks at them. "You mean there's another guy around here?" Sasuke asks. Terish nods and says, "Yip. Few things can fool us, plus we look for different things when searching for enemies." Ganmaru just sighs and soon the man looks off into the distance. Already the sounds of battle could be heard.

"You're not Leaf ninjas, so what's your home village?" The man asks. "Light Village." He answers. "Well, it looks like your time's been cut short. I'm Zabuza Momochi, the demon that hides in the mist!" He couldn't help but laugh at this. Even the others of the group couldn't help but smirk. It was Terish that says, "You look to be more of an Oni then a true Demon." Zabuza then asks, "Oni, Demon, same difference." He stops laughing and then says, "Wrong! Oni are a sub class of Demons. Oni are huge humanoid looking beasts that live and breed on this plane of existence. They don't have the same abilities as true Demons do. To just say there is no difference just show your ignorance! For Oni are easier to kill then Demons. Get the difference now?" He could see that this wasn't going well for the so-called mist demon. "What's this got to do with anything?" Zabuza asks. "It means that you can be killed." Sasuke says with a smirk on his face.

"Could we try not to enrage the guy with the large sword?" Sakura asks. "You're friend doesn't stand a chance against my friend. As for enraging me, that's was a given!" Zabuza says and then the mist comes closing in around them. He closes his eyes and listens are hard as he can.

Then he hears Kakashi say, "Don't worry Sasuke. I'm here to protect you!" Then he pin points the location of where Zabuza was and grabs a kunai and charges the spot. The mist clear and he smells blood. He opens his eyes and finds that he aimed for the guy's left arm. He then lets go of the kunai and leaps out of the way of a punch. He then hears a splash of water and looks to find Kakashi by some water. Then watches as Terish and Ganmaru charge Zabuza from different sides. He hears trees shaking, meaning that Sakura and Sasuke had gone to find Yue.

He then watches as Zabuza jumps out of the way of Terish and Ganmaru's attack. And right into another Kakashi. He watches as Zabuza then keels over and looks out of it. He then moves to check and see if Zabuza was alive and finds that the mist Nin was alive. He then looks up at Kakashi and finds that Kakashi's left eye is uncovered. He stares at the red eye with three black dots. Kakashi then recovers the eye and looks away. He sighs and lets Terish and Ganmaru bind Zabuza's arms and legs. Then Terish puts something into the enemy's mouth to keep Zabuza from killing himself.

Soon a masked kid appears and before they could do anything, the kid teleports Zabuza away. Then watches as Yue comes roaring onto the seen. He notices that Yue actived his bloodline and then to see Ganmaru's reaction. Ganmaru's jaw was hanging from his mouth. He just sighs and then turns to watch as Yue transforms back into his normal self. "Good work out?" Terish asks Yue. "Just a blast." Yue says dryly. "You have a bloodline limit?" Ganmaru finally asks. He watches Sasuke and Sakura return and then as Terish answers, "It's rare." Yue just nods and then just yawns tiredly. They soon continue onwards to their client's house. They now had much to worry about.

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They land by a cave a few miles from Gato's base and he needs to go over just what kind of injuries Zabuza has. He sighs in relief that he's only knocked out and will be waking soon.

He had been stunned when that white kid charged him from his hiding place. He had thought that he was well hidden, but it seems that the green-eyed youth wasn't fooled. The battle as a long one and he had to uses his bloodline limit just to slow him up. Then just as he was about to knock the other out, the kid transformed. He was fighting some who also had a bloodline limit. It was really touch and go from there.

Then when the other two arrived, he saw his chance and took it. He retreated and then came upon that seen. Zabuza had lost and was knocked out and tied up. He quickly jumped to Zabuza's side and teleported them away.

He thinks over his match with that kid and then remember the headband that was on the kid's head. He's never heard of a village with a feather for their symbol. So it was an unknown enemy traveling with those Leaf ninjas. Why they were traveling with them, he didn't know. It was just unheard of for another village to work so closely with another ninja village.

He finishes untying Zabuza, it took him longer then it should, and then waits for Zabuza to wake. The only thing on his mind was not what to do next or on hating the Leaf and unknown ninja, but on the image of that white-haired kid when he had been transformed. The white hair that grew on the kid's arms and how the kid's muscles seem to grow a bit as well. The look of fury that seem to radiate out of those green eyes. He was stunned when that kid did a jutsu when he was transformed. But then he could only guess that it was family jutsu meant for members of that clan with that transforming ability. He wonders if, had he grown up where this kid had, would he still have a family? He couldn't get these thoughts out of his head, for unlike the kid; he looks perfectly human when using his bloodline limit.

**To Readers:**

Just to remind you, I started this when I was really bored. So, if it jumps around, it because I want more character point of views then I usually do for some of my stories. This is just a loose story that I'm writing. And if you have any ideas for other plots or characters, I wouldn't mind hearing about it. Also, some of these points of views are just one shots.


	8. Chapter 8

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking'

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 8

He watches as the house comes into view. Sighs as he thinks about Yue's bloodline. He, of course, read about it in the report, but to see it in person was another thing. He hadn't known just how wild it would make the normally quite and reserved teen look. It was just so different then the eye bloodlines that were usual for Leaf. He could bet every book in his collection that a member of the Inuzuka clan wouldn't be able to match Yue transformed thus.

He sighs and wonders just when Zabuza will strike again. He didn't have to worry too much about Koichi, Terish, and Yue. It was Ganmaru, Sakura, and Sasuke that plagued his mind. He'll need to speed up their training; he could have the other three guard their client at the bright. He did have much to teach the three from Light village anyway.

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They were posted around the bridge. They had stopped a few attacks from the masked ninja and the so-called demon in the mist. They were mostly bored, though.

With the Leaf genin learning how to climb trees with just using chakra, it was mostly they just keeping a look out. They had posted a great deal of wards around the bridge. They even did some advance traps that they doubt the Leaf and ex-Mist Nins would know about. He watches as the builders take their breaks.

If they hadn't proven themselves in front of the workers, more of them would have stop coming to the bridge. He sighs and looks to where Yue was posted. He didn't need to know what Koichi was doing.

He turns to look at the ocean under the bridge. He misses his family and the kind of mission they were suppose to be doing. He still practices his family teachings and continues to read from the scroll that he brought with him to this northern land.

He then sighs as an alarm is triggered and looks over to Yue. Yue just shrugs and he grins a bit at this. It's his turn to handle things and he can't help but feel a bit grateful at the interruptions.

He leaps towards the direction of the alarms and he finds a good five ninja with the headband of Mist on their heads. He frowns and decides to watch them before acting.

They soon spy the bridge and a second set of alarms is triggered. He smirks; they were wondering when they'd try this. He'll stick with this group, knowing full well that Koichi and Yue were capable of handling the other group.

Soon the group he's watching soon are getting ready to close in on some villagers close by. He then decides to scare the living daylights out of them. He triggers the closest flare trip wire. The group is spooked out of their minds at the flare flying through the air. He then makes his appearance.

"Greeting, Ninjas of Mist. I hope you'll be willing to tell me why you're here." He says, as he seems to appear in the group's mist. He has a problem; he really wants to laugh at the expression on their faces! He just smirks at them and watches as they begin to realize that he's here and all alone. He wants to roll his eyes at this; he was trained to fight large groups of Oni and other chakra-using beasts. He also knows that these ninja can't possible know that, so they thought that they have the upper hand.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't a brat! A stupid one at that, so you think you can handle a group of six chuunin? A single genin like you?" The one with a chest full of daggers asks. He smirks even more and says, "Do you even know which village I'm from?" The other ninja just snort and a woman with her hair braided states, "Don't give a fk! You're just a genin, a rookie!" He then snorts and then laughs. He then says, "I'm from a village of Oni killers. I'm trained to fight a whole group of ugly, stinking Oni. Other then the fact you don't stink, you're just a pack of Oni to me!"

They group attacks but he's finished his ninjutsu before they even get an inch close to him. The jutsu was a root one and now they're all held up in the air and he then summon poisonous planets to grow up and tangle with the ninja's clothes. He then watches as the ninja struggle against the roots, not noticing that there were now deadly plants getting broken with some of the roots. It's his first kill, but he doesn't turn away from the group as they begin to feel the effects of the toxins that have entered their blood.

They didn't even yell out or cry out as well. He sighs as the lifeless copses fall to the ground. He then looks up and finds a flock of crows circling overhead. He moves out of the way and then watches as the crows begin to feast on the corpses. He watches it all and when it's finished, he leaves.

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He sighs as he comforts Terish. They all had their first kills today and they all had their grief, but they knew that this day was coming and they meet it head on.

Yue killed Zabuza when the jonin slipped pass him. He looks at the masked kid. He didn't have the heart to kill him, for the only real crime the kid had was being loyal to the only one to be kind to him after his parents died. He had killed the swords men that came with the two. They were a waste of breath and space.

He sighs as he hugs Terish. Yue was fast asleep on the ground. He had reinforced the surrounding wards with chakra. They'll alert them if someone tries to uses chakra or if anyone comes within a ten miles of the bridge.

He sights, Terish had stuck around to watch the crow finish their feast. They used a cover genjutsu on the three of them. It looks like they were just sitting around talking and maybe playing with some cards.

He's lucky that he remembers that game or it would have looked odd that three twelve-year-old kids were just sitting around talking. He watches as Terish slowly closes his eyes and then he lays Terish on the ground with a blanket as a pillow.

He then sighs and says, "So, how was I?" He then turns towards the masked kid. "You did well, I think." Was the answer that the other kid would give. He then moves and removes the mask. The face of the kid almost looked like a girl, if it wasn't for the simple fact that he remembers that the jonin called this kid a him, he would have believed that he was a she.

"You're not too broken up, I see." The kid says. He sits on the ground and says, "I got some training in that area. You see the demon sealed in me showed me a few of his memories. They were quite bloody and many people died because of him or what he did. I'm a bit hardened because of that. So, you got a name?" The kid thinks about it and then sighs. "Haku." He hears the older teen say. "You kind of reminded me of my sister, only her hair color is a reddish brown then black. Plus, much younger." He muses. "You must love her dearly." Haku states.

He nods and says, "So, you got a bloodline limit. Is that why your parent died?" Haku just nods his head. He sighs and says, "Yue's ability is rare in his clan. His twin sister doesn't even have it. It shows up like once every four generations." He could see that got Haku's attention. "He's not considered a monster?" Haku asks. He just snorts and says, "Monster odd choice of a word. No, Yue's not considered a monster, if that's what you're worried about. No, we don't use that term where we're from. You think humans and Demons are the only ones capable of using chakra? You'd be wrong. Our village ninja's primary job is to hunt and kill Oni and chakra using beasts from the Taijin Mountain range." He finds Haku looking surprised at that. "I didn't know there were any villages by that range." Haku says. He grins and answers, "You're thinking of the wrong side of the range. We're located south of it. It's mostly jungle there." Haku's jaw just drops, his grin widens. He continues, "There are also other intelligent races live there. Some are quite inhuman like. The _Kir!ron_ look to be deer crossed with a horse. They have antlers that are shed every ten years. Their coloring tends to be grey, black, red, and painted. Their manes are either white or yellow. Their back hooves are split and their front hooves are singular. Their tails are like a deer's tail. They're consider friendly, though they shy away from contact." Haku just blinks and his mouth is moving but nothing coming out. "So, there you have. Odd place, huh? My friends and I find it really hard to believe that these northern lands don't have any nonhuman races living around here. Looks like they're almost finished for the day. If I untie you, well you run?" He asks the other teen. Haku sighs and asks, "Could I give him a proper funeral first?" He sighs and nods his head. He unties the older teen and then goes to wake the others.

Soon they help Haku with the funeral rights and then offer pray's to Zabuza's spirit. Then they head back to the house their staying at. He's heart feels lighter then is was before they had the funeral.

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He just looks at Haku. He's asked the other teen to teach him some water jutsus. Haku had agreed and they're been practicing for a good five days. He still couldn't get over the fact the Haku looks like a really cute girl. He sighs and redoes the seals and he finally gets it to work.

Haku smiles and says, "That's it for this evening. It's been an honor teaching you, Ganmaru." He grins and says, "Thanks for teaching me, Haku." They then turn and head for the house. They come across Sasuke and Yue coming in too. They nod their greetings to each other then walk into the house.

Their job was almost done here, and with Gato kind of died, it was also much more peaceful. He sighs as he remembers that encounter.

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Kakashi, Terish, Haku, and him were heading to have a chat with this Gato character. Haku leads the way through the forest to Gato's hidden base. Kakashi decided that Yue and Koichi could keep guard back at the house. Yue was training with Sasuke, for it seems the Sasuke spar with Yue activated Sasuke's bloodline limit. Koichi only promised not to do anything drastic with Sakura.

They've been traveling for a good two hours at high speeds. He kind of envied Terish, for Terish was moving silently through the treetops. Better then Kakashi and Haku. He then focuses on what's before them.

The trees are getting larger for the last forty minutes and now they come across the base. It's hanging in the air with lines connecting to the surrounding area. He had to admit that the place looks impressive.

They stop on one of the trees close to the place. Then Kakashi turns and says, "Now, we get in and I have a bit of a chat with this guy. You guys are to keep guard." The three of them nod their heads and then they leap towards the building.

They get pass the guard easily and then they locate the right room, they knock out the guards and transform into their likeness. Terish hides the real guards by using a genjutsu. He doesn't know what kind of jutsu Terish used, but Haku looked quite impressed at it.

They stood outside the door for a good fifteen minutes before they hear some banging sounds start up. Then they duck and watch as holes begin to appear around them. "He didn't tell Zabuza and I about having any guns!" He hears Haku say. He looks puzzled at Haku. Haku doesn't explain, but they watch as some men come running and then as they get these holes. He's horrified at this, he's never heard of something like this. Then the sounds stop and Kakashi comes out of the room.

"Lets go." Kakashi says after taking a look around the hallway. They soon are on their way out of the place and just before leaving; Kakashi uses a fire ninjutsu to set the base on fire. They don't say anything as they then head back through the forest.

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He sighs as he takes his seat by Sasuke and Koichi. He can't wait to go back home. He also knew that Haku is considered Light's captive, so it will be up to the jonin from Light to decide on what to do with the teen. He knows that Kakashi is quite happy with this and other then a few glares from Sakura, Haku fitted right in with the group.


	9. Chapter 9

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking'

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 9

Their next missions were boring after the one to waves. He might not voice his opinion out loud, but he was usually thinking it. Other then the occasional spars with the genin from Light, he and his teammate were usually bored out of their minds. He enjoyed spending time with Ganmaru, Koichi, Terish, and Yue better then most people in Leaf. Now if only Sakura would stop trying to ask him out and just focus on training herself, he might even begin to like her.

He looks around at the other two, for Koichi and them were with another rookie group for this week. He found Ganmaru studying a scroll and Sakura was just looking bored. She had given up talking to him.

He wonders just why Kakashi would want to meet with them when he already dismissed them for the day. But then, he might never know what goes on in his teacher's mind. He might not want to know anyway. He wonders how Haku, the teen that Koichi and them captured, is handling being at Light village. He was very interested in what Light village was like, for from just watching Koichi and them, it was kind of obvious that they train their students better then most hidden villages. He wonders if they might consider sending a team of genin to Light village went Koichi and them go back.

He stops that train of thought, for their teacher as just appeared. "Your late!" Sakura yells at the jonin. "Sorry, but I thought that these will make it up to you." Kakashi then hands out some papers. He takes a look at the papers and finds that they were entrance form for the chuunin exam. "You think we're ready for this?" Ganmaru asks. "It's up to you three to choice weather or not to take the exam. Just fill them out and be at room 301 in a week. See ya later." Kakashi says and then teleports away.

They kind of stare at each other then at the papers in their hands, they didn't know if Kakashi is pulling their legs or what. He then notices Sakura look depressed. He sighs and wonders if Koichi and them would also be entering. _'There's only one way to find out.'_ He thinks as he begins to walk away.

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He looks at the form and then at the building. He sighs and looks over at Terish and Yue. It's been a week and he's noticed that someone was in the village with a strong demonic chakra. He didn't go investigating for the simple fact that he might meet up with this person and that person might want to fight him on the spot.

They then enter the building together. He wonders just what kind of exam this will be. It was going to take a while, he was certain of that. They then walk up the stairs and they all notice the genjutsu working at the second level. They look at each other and then at the second level floor. Terish then asks, "What to investigate?" They just nod their heads and walk through the door to the second floor.

They then observe as two guards the room 201. They decide to watch as this plays out. He notices a guy that is wearing the same kind of jumpsuit as Gai. _'Must be the team that he's been training. I wonder if that kid has Gai's speed?'_ He thinks as he watches as the kid then begins to try and enter.

Terish then says in a whisper, "You know, that kid reminds me of someone…" He smirks and answers in a whisper, "You're talking about Gai. You know, the one that's a good friend to Jeri? I bet you that they're his team." Terish and Yue just sigh, it seems that they remember Gai now.

Soon Sasuke and the other members of his cell appear. He grins a bit as they nod to each other and then watches at what happens next. As they watch Sasuke, Ganmaru, and Sakura approach the door with the two guards.

The kid that is wearing the same jumper as Gai gets pushed to the floor again. One of the guards the says, "Is someone as talentless as you really planning to take the chuunin selection exam?" Then the other one says, "Why bother?" Then the first one continues, "Bunch of wet-behind-the-ears snotnoses!" The second one says, "You said it!" Then the girl with the kid in the green jumpsuit says, "Please… We're begging you… let us in." She then walks towards the door and the first guy knocks her away.

Some kid then says, "… That's just cruel…!" The first guy hears that and answers, "What did you say? You misunderstand! We're just trying to spare you … The chuunin exam is incredibly difficult… And we should know. We've failed three times so far. There are people who made it, then immediately gave up being ninja… Others who ended up crippled… Some reduced to vegetables… We've seen it all!" Most people in the hallway look stunned. Then the guy continues, "Besides that, Chuunin are cell commanders. They lead their units. The responsibilities for failed missions and dead ninja rest firmly on their shoulders. And you little punks have the nerve to apply?" The guy snorts and the says, "We're saving a step by weeding out the obvious losers beforehand."

The Sasuke says, "That sounds good in theory… But you'd better let me through. And drop the force-field illusion you've created, while you're at it. I have business on the third floor." Some kid says, "What's he talking about?" Another says, "Who knows?"

The second guy says, "So you figured that out, eh?" Sasuke smirks and says, "It was easy. Right Sakura?" Sakura, his friends, and him look kind of surprised at this. For it was the first time that Sasuke ever really acknowledged Sakura outside training. Sasuke continues, "You were probably the first to notice it." Sasuke turns his head and continues, "You're the most analytical and the best in our cell…" Sasuke winks at her. "At understanding the art of illusion"

The others then begin to understand why Sasuke was doing this, it was to boost Sakura's moral. It works for then Sakura says, "Of course I noticed it. Obviously, we're still on the second floor." The first guy then says, "Hey… Not bad. But just seeing through it isn't… Enough!" The guy then tries to kick Sasuke and Sasuke then kicks to block it. But the kid wearing the green jumpsuit appears between them and holds onto each of their legs. He's impressed with this. _'He's fast.'_ He thinks and then watches as a kid with white eyes approaches his teammate. "Hey… That's not what we agreed! You're the one who insisted we should avoid drawing attention to ourselves." Sasuke, the guard, and the kid in the green jumpsuit get out of their stances.

The kid looks over at Sakura and then blushes. The girl that's his teammate then says, "Here we go again…" The kid then walks over to where Sakura is and then introduces himself. "Hi, my name is Lee Rock. You're Sakura right?" Then the kid grins and does thumbs up as he continues to speak. "Would you like to go out with me? I'll protect you with my life!" Sakura then says, "No… Way… You are way out of hand!" Lee looks kind of depressed at this.

Then the kid with white eyes approaches Sasuke. "Hey, you! What's your name?" The kid asks Sasuke. Sasuke then answers, "It's common courtesy to give your own name first." Then the kid with white eyes says, "You're a rookie, aren't you? How old?" Sasuke then says, "I don't have to tell you a thing." Then Sasuke turns away.

He then looks around for the two guards and finds them at in a room. He looks over at his teammates and then decides to follow Team 7's lead. Then he notices that Lee is behind them. He looks at where Lee is looking and then understands what the kid wants. He then motions his friends to the next floor. He didn't need to see what happens between Sasuke and Lee, for he knows that Sasuke will lose.

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He looks up and finds that Lee kid standing up there. "What is it?" Sasuke asks. Lee says, "You and me, here and now… Want to fight?" "You want to fight me… and now?" Sasuke asks. "Yes!" Lee says and then jumps down to the floor.

He's impressed, for Lee has guts jumping from so high up. He then watches as Lee then stands up. Lee then points to himself and says, "My name is Lee Rock. Among sticklers, etiquette requires one to introduce oneself before asking the name of another…" Sasuke then answers, "Sasuke Uchiha. Huh… So you knew who I was all along." "I'm calling you out! I want to test the effectiveness of my techniques… Against the last surviving member of your legendary clan." The Lee blushes a bit and says, "Besides…" Lee then turns to Sakura and winks.

He watches as Sakura over reacts to this. "No Way! Those eyelashes creep me out!" The he watches as Sakura trembles a bit. "Not to mention the geeky 'do… Plus the caterpillar unibrow!" Lee just says, "You're an angel!" And blows kisses at his female teammate. Sakura ducks down and hits her head on the floor. He had a hard time to keep himself from laughing at this. He could see that Sasuke had the same problem. Sakura then yells out, "You keep your weird kisses to yourself, creep! I could have died, dodging those!" Lee then says, "Aw… Don't be like that…"

Sasuke then decides to return to the challenge. "So, you're challenging me, even knowing my lineage? In other words, you're a fool. So, dog-brow… Do you really want to learn… What it means to be an Uchiha?" Lee then answers confidently, "Absolutely!"

Then Sasuke then starts it off by charging towards Lee. Then it looked like Lee disappeared and now is attacking Sasuke. As he watches the fight, Sasuke blocks the kick and Sasuke is flying through the air. Sasuke flips and rolls on to his feet. It seems that Sasuke's spars with Yue were paying off. He can't see Sasuke's face, but from the look on Lee's face. He'd guess that Sasuke's Sharingan was out. The Sasuke then charges Lee, then Sasuke moves to the left and blocks something. Then Sasuke then pushes Lee's kick back and then lets go of Lee's leg. Sasuke then quickly tries to punch Lee, but is sent flying into the air.

He blinks and he hears Sakura gasp in surprise. He sighs and continues to watch as Lee then shadows Sasuke through the air. "Kagebuyo. There's no ninjutsu or tricks. It's all physical." Lee tells them. Before Sasuke could begin to start a ninjutsu, the bandages on Lee's left arm are trailing through the air.

Then out of nowhere something pins the tip of the bandages. He turns as he hears someone say, "That's enough, Lee!" He finds a big turtle standing there with a Leaf headband around its neck. Both Lee and Sasuke land on the floor.

Lee then bows to the turtle. "You know the rules, Lee. That move is strictly forbidden!" The turtle says. He looks at Sakura and finds that Sakura just shrugs. He then returns to staring at the scene in front of him. "Please forgive me… I was only…" Then Lee stands up and continues, "I… I wouldn't have used the reversal move… I nerve meant…" Then the turtle says, "You fool! Do you think I care about your feeble excuses? Consider the repercussions of a ninja! Baldly showing off all his secrets!" "Y-Yes, sir!" Lee says. "I hope you are properly prepared?" The turtle says. "Y-Yes, sir!" Lee says. Well, then… He's all yours, Master Gai!" The turtle says and then a funnel of smoke appears on the turtle's shell.

Then a man appears on the turtle's shell. "Au, the exuberance of youth. All of you are full of it." The man says in the turtle's voice. He just stares at the older guy. He finds that the guy is wearing the same jumpsuit as Lee, or maybe he should say that Lee is wearing the same jumpsuit as this man. The guy shares the same haircut and eyebrows as Lee.

Then Sakura says, "He's got the biggest eyebrows yet! They're almost… Alive… And that same dorky 'do… They're… Uber-brows!" Lee turns and shouts, "H-Hey! Don't try to make fun of Master Gai!" Gai then says, "Lee!" "Oh! Uh, yes, sir…" Lee asks. Gai then punches Lee and says, "Idiot!"

Then he had to do a double take for it looks like Gai and Lee were crying. "Master! I… I…" "That's enough, Lee! Not one more word." Gai says and then Lee cries out, "Master!" Then they hug each other. "I understand. It's because you're young!" Gai says. "Master!" Lee says. He was now getting freaked out at this. They let go of each other and then Gai says, "It's all right, Lee! Mistakes and youth go hand in hand." "You are too kind… Master!" Lee says. "But I can't let your attempt to break the big rule go punished. You penalty will be to sweat after the chuunin selection exams." Gai says. "I understand!" Lee says. Then Gai then poses and says, "Five hundred laps around the practice arena!" Lee then says, "Yes, sir!"

Then Gai looks towards them. "By the way… How is Master Kakashi?" Gai asks them. Sasuke asks, "You know Master Kakashi?" "Do I know him? Heh, heh…" Gai says and then it looks like the jonin disappear right in front of them. "I should say so! We're arch-rivals!" Gai's voice comes from of behind them.

They turn and look at him and Gai then continues, "The score stands at fifty to forty-nine." Then Gai smiles and says, "I'm stronger than he is." Lee then says, "As you can see, Master Gai is totally amazing!" Gai then says, "I know Lee started this fight, but take pity on his old teacher. For the sake of my own self-respect, forgive him." Then Gai sends out a kunai to knock the thing pinning the bandage to the floor. "You and Lee should head up to the classroom now." Lee then begins to rewrap the bandage. "Best of luck, Lee! Later!" Gai says and disappears. "Yes, sir!" Lee says. Then when Lee's finished wrapping his bandage, he says, "By the way, I'm here to prove my own strength in combat. I do know that the strongest Leaf genin is on my team and I plan to take him down! By the way, you're on my list too!" Then Lee leaps back up into the air. "Off to apply for the exam. Be ready for it, okay?"

Lee is gone and they look at the direction where Lee has gone. "Well, I wonder what a match would be like between Lee and one of Koichi's team? Now, I'd say it'd be a close match." He says, trying to lighten the mood. It works for both Sakura and Sasuke grins at the very thought. He knows that few will be able to match up with any of Koichi and them. Still, he'd like to think that they might be in for the same surprises as them.


	10. Chapter 10

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 10

He just stares between the kid with red hair and his teammate. He looks to Yue for support, but Yue seems to be at a lost as well. All he knew was they came through the door and when Koichi entered, Koichi's eyes then scanned the area until his eyes found the red head. Then it seems that the crowd just parted as the red head moves towards Koichi. Everyone in the room didn't even dare move, less one of the two teens turn on the one that moved.

Then the door opened and he turns to find the team that's been trained by Gai. The kind of flinched as they look at Koichi and the red head. It seems that both of them were too deeply interested in each other to care about the others in the room. He watches as Ino comes over as silently as she could, he watches as Ino kind of shakes every time her feet make a sound on the floor.

"Is there a reason why I'm reminded of two dogs about to fight?" Ino asks Yue and him. He and Yue exchange glances and he answers, "Maybe because their doing a really good impression of a stand off?"

Then as if something broke, sand began to reach towards Koichi. Koichi snorts and the sand stops moving. The red head looks stunned at this and he narrows his teal eyes. The sand then begins to retreat.

Then the door opens and both Koichi and the red head turn to look at who is entering the room. Ganmaru and Sakura flinches at the glare the red head sends them, only Sasuke didn't look too fazed at this.

The red head then looks back at Koichi and says, "I'll be waiting." Then the red head turns right around and walks back to his teammates. Everyone in the room just lets go of a breath that they're been holding. He feels much better with Koichi and that kid no longer staring at each other.

The other rookies walk over to where they were standing. "Geeze! You and that sand guy looked ready to ripe each other apart!" Kiba says as he walks over with his dog Akamaru in his jacket. "It couldn't have been that bad!" Ganmaru says. Shikamaru just sighs and says, "This is just way to much trouble."

"I must admit, you and that sand guy really know how to quit a room." The guy with glasses says as he finally walks over. He looks at the guy and just knows this guy was trouble written in bold red underlined letters. He notices as Koichi and Yue narrow their eyes a bit at watching this guy chat up the nine rookies of Leaf.

Yue and him move closer to Koichi and Koichi then says in their native language, "Demon carrier." He understands and asks in the same language, "Does he and his demon… I mean work together?" Koichi shakes his head. "Nope. It's more like the demon's eating away at the mind then to help the carrier." Koichi informs them. "So in a fight, you'd win?" Yue asks. Koichi smirks a bit and nods.

Soon they turn and watch as the guy with glasses throwing up. He sighs and wonders if this thing is really worth the bother. He knows that they were making history by just being the first team of rookies from Light village ever to do missions outside the village.

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He couldn't believe that that red head and Koichi could scare a room full of trained genin from all over, but it happened. He knew that Koichi has a demon sealed within him, so he knew that Koichi has more chakra and more then a few advantages over most people, but he now wonders if that Gaara kid also had a demon in him. That would make sense, considering how the whole room just seemed to relax when Koichi and Gaara parted.

He sighs and looks at the test before him. If it wasn't for three jutsus that he learnt from Haku, he might not have gotten all the answers for these nine questions. He first had to summon water out of the air, then to freeze it, and then send it out to copy a test from someone else.

When it came back, it had all the answers in chakra on its surface. He finished a good ten minutes ago. So he had time to ponder just what happened between Koichi and Gaara. He had also noticed that the Light genin didn't pay attention to anything that Kabuto said. He also wonder just what they talked about for he didn't understand what they were saying as he kept half and ear to what Kabuto had said at that time.

He looks to where Koichi is sitting. It looks like Koichi was sleeping. He sighs and looks around to check out the other Leaf rookies and the others from Light. He founded Yue and Hinata sitting together. Shino, Kiba, and Ino was in the next row ahead of him. Choji was sitting at the same room as Sasuke. Shikamaru and Terish were close to the front of the room.

He watches as teams of three are sent out of the room. He sighs and then watches as one of the sand guys live the room to go use the restroom. He watches as the chief examiner Ibiki checks his watch. He grins a bit at this and sits a little straighter. Finally the tenth question was coming up.

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They were traveling with Ganmaru, Sakura, and Sasuke. He didn't like that snake guy that came after them. If it hadn't been for the fact that he could connect up with this planes chakra reserve, he might have failed to stop that guy from biting Yue.

As it is, he can't help but smirk at what kind of seal he placed on that guy. It was one that Blood Trail's taught him. The more chakra used on placing the seal, the harder it is for that guy to escape the effects of the seal or to seal it up. It was one that burns right into a person's soul. That's why the seal was called the Soul Burner.

They were almost at the tower and he just grins at the sight before them. They're been traveling via treetops. For few humans look up when looking for people. It's the second day and both groups have two scrolls, so they didn't need to fight over anything.

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They all just stared at the female examiner as she hands out papers for them to sign. He wonders just what kind of person is this Anko Mitarashi is. For his first impression seems to be holding steady. It mostly was that Anko is one loud person and must be real powerful to survive this long too.

He takes a paper and passes it on. He reads it over and sighs a bit more. They then break up into groups. Terish leads them to a good spot and they then sign the papers. He then gathers up the papers and he could feel the other Demon carrier's eyes on him. He turns and matches stares with the kid.

Then snorts and looks over to see if they could exchange the papers for scrolls yet. He then saw a guy stare at Yue. He didn't like the way the guy was staring at his friend. He smirks a bit and sends a bit of chakra through the ground in that guy's direction. The man looks stunned and he then matches stares with the guy. He hardens his stare at the guy.

'_Kill him first. He reminds me of a snake and I hate snakes.'_ Blood Trail tells him. He had opened a path between him and Blood Trail for two hours. The first hour and half was almost up and then he'll be alone in this own head. It was something that Elder Ruki taught him. He used a jutsu that sent his spirit out of his body to get the answers for the first test, so that's why there was a temporary pathway connecting Blood Trail and him.

'_Can't right now, later. I think the guy's interested in Yue. So I'll meet up with him again.'_ He thinks to himself, knowing that Blood Trail will hear him. Soon looks over to the stands and finds people lining up. They then walk to the end of the line.

They wait their turn and they are then taken to their gate to wait. They got an earth scroll, so they need a heaven scroll. Soon they are release into the forest of Death. They then take to the treetops and travel for a good two hours. They hit upon a group from Hidden Mist.

The Mist ninja had the scroll they needed and they just trick the group to get the scroll. It was so easy that it wasn't even funny. They switched it with a small stick and left under ten minutes.

They were soon on their way towards the tower when they encountered the ninja from Hidden Grass. He narrows his eyes at the guy; he didn't like the guy when he first laid eyes on him and it didn't help matters when the guy just stands there, full of pride and confidents. He connects up with this plane's chakra, he didn't want to use Blood Trail's chakra right now, and he would most likely go berserk.

They stood there and then a huge snake appears from behind the guy. They reach for their kunai. Then the guy tries to use killer intent on them. It makes them flinch for a second and in that second the guy performs a jutsu. As soon as he can, he reaches and pulls a huge amount of chakra from this plane and focuses it into a seal.

As the guy's neck lengthens, he moves quickly and puts his hand on the guy's neck. The seal burns its way not just onto the body, but also onto the guy's soul. He pours more and more chakra into the seal for a good three minutes. Then the guy jutsu expires and his neck returns to normal length.

The man uses his left hand to hold the right side of his neck. The man's eyes turn yellow and he says, "Attack!" The snake does just that and the man flees. They take out the snake easily.

They then decide to look for some place to rest. He feels tired, but Yue thanks him for his quick recovery. "It was nothing. I just didn't like the guy." He says, trying to down play the whole thing. Terish and Yue don't buy it, but they do drop it.

After another two hours, they find the river and they settle down. He closes his eyes and takes a nap. He knows that Terish and Yue didn't need him to defend this spot. He needed to rest and if he's lucky, he'll be ready in a good eight hours.

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When he woke, team 7 had joined them and he didn't really know just why, only that it seemed like a good idea. He decided not to push it and just shrugged it off.

He sighs as his thoughts turn to food and his stomach growls at the very thought. He sighs and promises himself to eat to his heart's content. He didn't have much after waking up.

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He examines the seal on his master's neck. He's never seen anything like it. For one thing, what colour of chakra that was used was green not the normal blue or demonic red. He couldn't understand this, he's read tons of books about chakra and not one ever spoke of chakra being green.

"I have no clue how to seal this or to get rid of it. Maybe a soul transfer might get rid of it, but that's all I could think of." He says. He flinches a bit from the glare Orochimaru sends him. "I know that you fool! I wanted to know if you to try and seal it! Not just examine it!" Orochimaru says.

He sighs and then tries a basic sealing jutsu. As he finishes it, he then is stunned at what happens next. The mark glows then it pulsed. The seal that he just tried just disappears. Then the mark glows a fiery dark green. His master then cries out in pain. It's long and hard, and it then turns into a scream. He backs away from his master; less he is killed in his master's rage.

The scream lasts for a good five minutes and then his master is on his knees, holding onto his neck. Sweat is dripping from his master and, if he's right, tears too. He knows that his master was working something like what just happened, but it seems that it found his master. He found the irony quiet funny.

He knew that if his master had just stuck with the original plan, not of this would be happening. _'That Koichi really does have a demon in him. But that doesn't explain the green chakra, though. Does it have to do with him growing up in Light village? If so, the answer then lies there.'_ He thinks as he watches his master breathe deep quick breaths. He wonders just how to add this into his own plans.

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She watches, as Koichi looks thoughtful. She didn't know if it was such a good idea to ask him a bit more about his family, but he doesn't look too offended.

Then just as she was about to stutter an apology, Koichi then begins. "I have a little sister named Jeri. When I was younger, I didn't like the idea of sharing my parents with anyone, let alone a little sister or brother. My opinion changed over time. Mostly due to my grandfather telling me that having her around meant that she was my duty to protect her." She sits down to his left. She looks at the distant look in his bright blue eyes.

She waits for him to continue. Koichi does. "I still remember the first time Jeri first used my name. I always know just where she liked to hide, nobody could find her like I could. I prided myself on it. Things changed when the one and only Gai appeared at our village. You're seen Lee, right?" He looks at her and she nods. "Gai's dressed just like Lee is. I first met Gai when I was eight years old and Jeri was six years old. I was walking Jeri to school because my parents left the house. It's ironic that Jeri and I meet the very guy every ninja was looking for. Gai did the usual poses and odd speeches. Then as my sister comforted him, a group of ninja appeared and Gai took off with my sister. I think the reason was as to not run her over. I was stunned at first. Then I remember this water area used for training that my sister hasn't used in a while. I was right, Jeri directed Gai to that one training area. Just as I arrived, a large lizard decided to make Gai its meal. This lizard was like a good six feet long. It had been attracted to the training grounds by the three foot long water beetles." She had to blink at that. She wonders just how big animals grow at Light village.

Koichi continues, "The lizard got wise to what Gai was doing and Gai had also grown careless. So when the lizard sent Gai flying, and then was making its way towards Gai, I used my wooden daggers to stop it. Then Gai got up and sent the lizard flying through the air." Koichi grins at this and she guessed it must have been something. "Then Gai just surrenders when the ninja surrounded him. Luckily, the whole thing leaded to Gai teaching a team of genin. Gai and my sister developed a close relationship, kind of like father and daughter or uncle and niece."

Koichi pauses and then snorts, "It was around that time Terish and Yue became my friends. You see, we had been doing night classes for sometime and Gai came up with this training exercise. It called for students to capture a scroll that his team would be carrying. His students couldn't confront the students, only to avoid them. Then we, the students, were then put on a three-man team. We could ally up with other teams to capture the genin. Terish, Yue, and I were put on the same team. We then found a place and set up alarms and then we just waited. We were the only ones to ever get the scroll from that genin team. We spend most of the night together and when we got the scroll, that something between us grew into a friendship. It's been going strong ever since." Koichi tells her.

She nods at this; she never thought that Koichi, Terish, and Yue had that deep of a connection. "T-Then t-this t-test must r-remind you of t-that exercise." She stutters. Koichi smiles a bit at that. "True. So, you know that I'm not going to bit or anything, so you don't have to be nervous." Koichi tells her. She just blinks and looks away.

She hears Koichi sigh and says, "If you ever want to talk about anything, just come see me, ok? I can be a good listener, you know. I wouldn't judge you. We all got something we need to talk about at one time or another." She blushes and just nods. Koichi gets up and she watches him leave. She didn't really know why she wanted to get to know him better, but then, it might be because he didn't grow up around here. She knows that Koichi has this something around him that she's never seen before, not even from Terish or Yue. It was really hard to explain, but it was just there and she liked that about him too.

She knew that for some reason, Koichi opened up to her and she felt honoured about that. Considering what her father and the rest of the clan thought of her. She didn't just doesn't feel right around the rest of her clan. She felt more at home with her team then with her family.

As she gets up, a ghostly image appears in front of her. The woman is really old. She just freezes and then hears in her mind, _'So, you feel his light? Stupid of me, of course you do or you won't be so comfortable around him or attracted to him. What's your name girl?'_ She then says out loud, "Hinata." The ghostly woman smiles and once again says in her mind, _'You don't need to say it out loud, just think in is fine. I'm Elder Ruki and you my girl, would benefit from special training. I'll see to it that went this is over; you and your team will be staying on after the exam. Also, don't be afraid of hold back during your match. Don't let him toy with you mind, child. You are more gifted then anyone knows. I'll be seeing you later. Also, if you have time, tell my student that his family says hi.'_ Then the image of the woman disappears. She just blinks and wonders if she just dreamed this.


	11. Chapter 11

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 11

He just stares at the group of people in front of him. They were all high level ninja. He just tones the stuff out about trying to impress clients of other countries. He wonders if this speech was ever going to stop.

Out of twenty teams, only six teams passed. The one team with Gaara on it, Hinata, Kiba, and Shino's team, team 7, Gai's team, the sound team, and finally his team. That makes eighteen people.

He mentally sighs and they finally get to the part of where they fight each other. Soon they walk up to the catwalk and wait for the match between Zuka and Lee. Soon the examiner for the third exam begins the match.

Then Zuka then begins to brag about his wonderful arms and how much damage he could do. He just rolls his eyes at this. Before Zuka knew it, Lee punched him. "So, it's the hard way, huh?" Zuka states. Lee takes a fighting stance and says, "Enough talk, I'm burning with a fury passion!" Then Zuka sends out and air blast. It never hits, for Lee disappears and reappears behind Zuka. Then just as Zuka tries to send an air blast at Lee, Lee then just stands there, and says, "I wouldn't try that again." Zuka just smirks and tries to blast Lee, but his arms get blasted off.

"I blocked the air passages with a few rocks. I also used large ones at the opening points, so when I warned you not to try it, you should have listened to me." Lee says in a sad tone. Medic Nins appear and soon collect the arms and Zuka.

Lee then looks depressed as he walks up the stairway. The scoreboard then shows the names, Terish and Sasuke's names. He looks at the two and finds that they were glancing at each other.

Soon both make their way to the floor and the examiner begins the match. He wonders just what kind of jutsus Terish will be using, for Sasuke could very easily copy them and use them later. This was going to be a longer battle then the last one.

They then charge each other, as they watch, they exchange punches and kicks. As Terish retreats a little, Sasuke then takes it up a notch. Sasuke's Sharingan is now active, but then Terish smirks and does a series of hand seals. "Night Flare!" Terish yells out the name of the jutsu. As they all watch, Sasuke covers his eyes.

In that moment, Terish seems to disappear. He didn't bother to search around for Terish, knowing full well that Terish was using a family technique. This was the reason why the Leopard clan were consider to be some of the best scouts and ambushers.

Soon Sasuke is also looking around for any signs of Terish. As Sasuke turns around in a frantic search for Terish, series of kunai begin to rain down toward Sasuke. It looks like Terish had a trap already in place. There are gasps as a net of light appears on the ground and before Sasuke could leap away, the net shots up. The lines of the net wrap themselves around Sasuke's body.

Soon Sasuke can't move, and if Sasuke had enough chakra control to make a chakra blade, he wasn't getting out of this trap. Terish appears from the shadows. Terish then walks over and knocks Sasuke out.

"Winner is Terish Leopard." The examiner says. The lines of blue chakra disappear from Sasuke's body and a Medic Nin appears and checks on Sasuke. Kakashi appears and picks Sasuke up and walks him up the stairs, with Terish walking behind him.

The next match is between Kiba and Ganmaru. Both make their way down the stairs. Akamaru is on Kiba's head. Then when they both reach the bottom of the stairs, Kiba puts Akamaru on the ground.

Then the examiner says, "Begin!" Ganmaru is already doing hand seals. Soon two water clones appear on either side of Ganmaru. This cause Kiba to blink in surprise, then Kiba says, "Fat lot that's going to help you! Their just water clones!" Akamaru barks in agreement with his master. Ganmaru just grins a bit at that. "Really? Are you quiet certain about that?" Ganmaru asks. Kiba just snorts and tells Akamaru, "Attack the stupid water clones." Akamaru growls and charges one of the water clones. The clones attack that dog. Then when Akamaru destroys one, the clone shatters into ice shards. Akamaru then dodges the shards, but forgets about the other clone.

"I guess that time he spent with Haku helped." Sakura says. He sighs and says, "True, I wonder why Zabuza never used this version of water clone?" Kakashi answers, "It's a recent development. I helped Ganmaru and Haku with this one." They look at Kakashi and then they all just blink at this. Then they returned to the fight.

Ganmaru has five more clones to help him fight against Kiba and Akamaru. The pair of them are retreating from the clones. Then Kiba digs around in his pouch for something. Then Kiba says, "Akamaru, here!" The dog jumps and shallows the red pill. Soon Akamaru changes into a red dog.

"You think that's all I got up my sleeve?" Ganmaru asks. Ganmaru then does some seals and soon the whole floor looks like there are over forty Ganmaru's. This causes Kiba and Akamaru look around in confusion. He knows something that Kiba and Akamaru don't, most are just illusions. Ganmaru's plan was beginning to come into light.

He now knows why Ganmaru let Kiba and Akamaru destroy those costly clones. It was to not just freak out the pair but also to have a source of water. For that's what the shards of ice are becoming. It takes longer for ice to melt then for water to evaporate, so whatever Ganmaru is planning, he needs the extra chakra he's saving by having these shard of ice around. But he's still at a lost as to what kind of jutsu needed that kind of special planning.

Kiba and Akamaru finally calm down and Kiba uses a jutsu to transform Akamaru into a beast clone. Then they both use Piercing Fang on all the clones. Soon ice shards litter the floor and Ganmaru takes a few hits too.

Then Ganmaru grins and quickly does some hand seals. "Area change! Ice Field Jutsu active!" Ganmaru yells out. Soon it gets cooler and many of the ice shards grow bigger. The shards of ice now look like great ice spires and they were also cold. He grins at this and it now makes sense about why Ganmaru need the ice shards. It also meant that Ganmaru has gotten more control over his chakra.

"This doesn't frighten us! Piercing Fang!" Kiba shouts. They drill through many spires but by the time they are even close to Ganmaru, the force of their attacks is much less.

Then when Kiba and Akamaru come out of the attack, Ganmaru attacks them and don't let up. Even from here, he could see that Ganmaru looks tired, but he soon gets a lucky break. Akamaru tries to use Piercing Fang without warning; the beast clone misses Ganmaru and knocks out Kiba.

With Kiba knocked out and Akamaru transforms back into a dog. Then the examiner says, "Ganmaru is the winner." Then the ice field disappears and Ganmaru faints. The Medic Nins take both of them off the hospital wing.

He then takes a minute to glance at Lee. He finds that Gai and Lee's female teammate comforting the depressed Lee. It seems that Lee's not over the fact that he's responsible for that guy's arms getting blasted off. Not that he could blame the guy, it was really gross. He sighs and looking to see if it's his turn and finding that it's Yue and Shino's turn. He then nods to Sasuke, Terish, and Kakashi, not Sakura though; she was too busy yelling encouraging words to Yue.

He hoped that whatever happens, it's a long match. The simple reason why they've been winning so far was they haven't really shown off during practices and spars. He walks pass Lee's other teammate as he walks to where Gai was. He didn't bat an eye at the kid with white eyes.

(--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)

He watches as Koichi heads over to Gai's team. He didn't really know what to make of it, but decided not to worry about it. He might have lost to Terish, but he was now more eager to learn more then just jutsus that Leaf offered.

He watches as Yue and Shino stand looking at each other for a few moments. "Why don't they just attack?" He hears a new voice say. He turns and finds the other guy from Sand. "They've sparred before." Terish answers. They then turn to watch as Shino is making the first move.

Shino attacks by throwing two kunai towards Yue. Yue moves forward and grabs them and in a simple spin, sends them back towards Shino. Then Yue races towards Shino. Shino dodges the kunai and throws a punch at Yue when Yue gets close enough.

As they watch, Yue and Shino exchange blows and kicks. Then Yue does something that shocks many, for from Yue's fingertips, chakra appears like lines flowing through the air. Shino leaps away and the lines of chakra disappear a good two feet away from Yue.

"What did Yue do?" Sakura asks. Terish answers, "When you have a great deal of control of your chakra, nothing is impossible. That chakra was focused and released as sharp strings. Shino can't do what he normally does in this match. I wonder if Shino has a plan in works, though." He looks at Shino and wonders just what Terish meant by Shino not attacking normally. He doesn't ask though.

Shino is now retreating from Yue. Then ask Yue's fist finally connects, Shino's body breaks apart into a great many bugs. Yue don't panic though, it looks like Yue didn't seem all that surprise at this. The bugs attach themselves to Yue, but Yue don't seem to mind.

Then it looks like Yue finally found what he's looking for, Yue does a simple seal and blue chakra appears around him. The bugs get off Yue and fly around the blue lines of chakra. Then Yue begins to do some seals. Then there are four other Yue's. Then they spread out and so more insects appear.

The clones and Yue don't pay much attention to these bugs. It was then that he realized that most of the bugs were most likely an illusion. The clones and Yue then meet up with a group of Shino clones.

Soon only one Yue and Shino were left and the illusion of the swarm of bugs disappears. Yue then blocks one of Shino's punches with his wooden shield. Yue then pushes Shino back and punches Shino's lower jaw. This sends Shino into the closest wall.

Shino's body breaks apart into bugs and the real Shino appears behind Yue and Yue just ducks down to dodge the punch aimed for the back of his head. Yue then knocks Shino onto the floor and quickly draws a kunai and places it by Shino's neck.

"I surrender." Shino says. The examiner then proclaims Yue that winner of the match. Then Yue helps Shino up and they then walk back up the stairs together. He sighs and turns to see Kiba and Akamaru also making their way up the stairs.

Soon the scoreboard reads, Tenten and Temari. The female teammate of Lee walks down the stairs and the only female from Sand just jumps to the floor using her huge fan. They then both look at each other and soon the examiner starts the match.

As soon as the match starts, Tenten begins to throw kunai towards the blond Temari. Temari just stands there, looking bored and then as the kunai get close, Temari's fan opens to one purple dot. The kunai the land on the floor around Temari, then Temari says, "You'll lose this match when four dots appear." Tenten looks stunned at this and then seems to be thinking about something.

Temari just waits and Tenten the takes out a single scroll, then Tenten opens the scroll and soon weapons appear on the paper. Tenten then begins to throw them at where Temari is standing. Once again the weapons approach the Sand Nin and then they land on the ground surrounding Temari. Temari's fan has another purple dot on it.

Now Tenten looks pissed and takes out two scrolls and leaps into the air. Tenten opens both summoning scrolls and soon a good many weapons appear on the papers. Tenten then shots them all towards the Sand Nin. Once again Temari's fan opens to another purple dot and the weapons land far from Temari.

Tenten looks exhausted and Temari then opens her fan to reveal the fourth dot. Temari then picks up the fan and swings it at Tenten. This sends Tenten into the wall behind her. Tenten is knocked out and the examiner declares Temari the winner. Some Medic Nins come and take Tenten away.

Temari walks back up the steps to where Gaara and the other Sand guys are. The scoreboard then reads Gaara and Dosu. Before they even make it to the floor, Dosu says, "I forfeit." Everyone just stares at the Sound Nin. Gaara just sends him a murderous glare. Then examiner then declares Gaara the winner.

The scoreboard then reads Koichi and Kankuro. Koichi and the last Sand Nin walk down the stairs. He's not too worried, he already knew which of the two was going to win. It also looks like Gaara knew too, for Gaara was now just glaring at Dosu.

The examiner then says begin. Koichi just takes out a kunai and throws it, not at Kankuro but at the bundle. Then Kankuro leaps in the path and the kunai hits the guy in the chest. But there's no blood. The bundle unwraps and there stands the real Kankuro. "So you knew." Kankuro states. "I could feel the strings from here." Koichi answers.

Then Koichi races towards Kankuro. The puppet opens up and shots out some simple needles but Koichi just jumps over them and then over the puppet and kicks Kankuro in the head. Kankuro's head hits the floor first and then the rest of his body lands on the floor too. It was a knock out and Koichi is pronouncing the winner.

"Your burning fire burns more brightly then the last time I saw it!" Gai yells out. He looks over at the other jonin. It was Terish that answers, "Gai's a old friend of Koichi's family." "You mean you know Gai?" Sakura asks. Yue nods and Terish answers, "Gai's the one that's been the contact between our villages since we were eight." Kakashi then says, "So that's where he's disappearing to…"

The scoreboard then reads Neji and Hinata. He blinks and looks to where Hinata was standing. Then Koichi yells, "Do your best, Hinata!" That snaps Hinata out of it and for Hinata blushes. Soon both make their way to down the stairs.

(--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)

She can't believe that she's standing on the floor. She just stares at her cousin. She can't believe that she was facing him! But what happened last night, what the old woman told her. She'll try her best and promises not to let Neji psychic her out.

For the first time in her life, she felt this calm settle over her. She felt at peace with the now. She's never felt this way before, but she didn't worry about it, though.

She then sees a movie play out in her mind. It shows just how Neji would attack and how it ends. She gets knocked out, but this was the odd part, she sees Koichi, but not the Koichi she knows. This one wears an orange jumpsuit and is paler. It was also odd that he's wearing a Leaf headband…

The images stop and Neji also stops talking. She goes into a stance and waits. This throws Neji off, but her cousin then recovers and charges her. She didn't even know it, but she misdirects some of her cousin's attacks and also lands a few of her own. It was like she wasn't in control…

She moves without thinking about it and moves quickly to her right and lands an attack on her cousin's back. This causes him to cough up some blood. It also angers him and without any warning Neji aims for her chest. She directs it out of its path, but it hits her shoulder. She also lands three hits before Neji could pull away.

They retreat from each other. She's attacking with her Byakugan activated without remembering when she activated it. They then wait for a few minutes and then she charges her cousin. She aims for his stomach but their attacks hit their chests. She smiles a bit at this, knowing that she changed the out come of this fight…

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He watches as both Neji and Hinata fall to the ground. It was a draw and Medic Nins came and carried both away. He's relieved that Hinata tied with Neji in this match. He was also impressed that Hinata had improved so much. He wonders what caused the change in her, though. It was kind of like dreaming…

He shakes his head and watches as Sakura and the last Sound Nin walk onto the floor. Everyone knew which of the two were going to win, but it was just how badly Sakura will lose.

The match began and within five minutes, Sakura is knocked out from the bell ringing. Sakura is carried away and they were given a break before the speeches start. They all go to check up on Ganmaru, Sakura, and Hinata.

**To Readers:**

Orochimaru didn't get a chance to bite anyone, though he was aiming for Yue though. Hope that this clears it up for you. Also about Lee's match, I though plugging the holes was pretty obvious to anyone with any thinking person. Lee just didn't think that the arms would blast off, though just shoot the rocks out. That was mostly the bloodiest scene in this chapter.


	12. Chapter 12

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 12

He's fighting Gaara and it was the last match of the first round too. Terish and Yue were fighting each other; Temari and Kin were fighting each other, and so were Lee and Ganmaru. He just sighs as he walks down the street. He wonders if the area will still be standing when they were finished.

He's heading to the hot baths to soak. This might be that last time he uses hidden Leaf's bathhouses. In three days this whole exam is being moved to Light village. He'll finally get to see his family again. He can't wait to give Jeri the gifts that he bought for her and the gifts for his parents and great granddad.

It was then he sees this white haired elder peeping into the woman's bathhouse. He blinks and then decides to check it out. He comes up behind the elder and then whispers in the guy's left ear, "I don't think that you should be here." He pulls back when the elder turns sharply towards him. The man then loses his balance and falls forward. He hears the women notices that the man's face was in the wall and they scream and some braver ones hit the old man on the head.

Soon he watches as a large group of women leave the bathhouse in towels. He's old enough to know that the opposite gender is something to be interested in but not old enough to be distracted by them yet. He waits for the old man to get his head unstuck and gets a better view of the man's face. He finds that the man has red lines coming from his eyes to the bottom of his jaw. The old guy's headband didn't have a village symbol on it. The old guy was also carrying around a large scroll.

He watches, as the old man looks him up and down. The man's eyes rest on his headband. "I don't remember a village called Hidden Feather…" The man says. He sighs and answers, "I'm from Light village. It's south of the Taijin Mountain range." Then man blinks and just stares for a good minute then say, "You're the one that interrupted my research!" He just blinks and looks at the man oddly. "I thought you were just peeping in on the woman's bathhouse." He says. The old man then answers, "That's what I was researching!" He answers, "You were researching house? Couldn't you go do that at the library?" He knows what this old man was 'researching,' he just doesn't want to admit it. Plus from the way this man was acting, it was kind of funny too. He grew up being taught to respect his elders, but with this one old man, it just didn't seem to apply.

The old man just looks to be at a lost for words. He just keeps a straight face and keeps looking the man in the eye. It works as the man just throws his hands up in defeat. "Great! A snotnose kid busted me! What's next? Demon carriers coming out of the wood works?" The man says. "I am a demon carrier." He tells the man. That makes the man freeze up and turn stiffly towards him. "What kind of demon?" The man asks. "A nine-tailed fox named Blood Trail." He answers. The man just lets his jaw drop in shock.

He then sighs and says, "See you around." Then he continues on his way. He then hears the man says, "Hey! I didn't get your name!" He pauses and turns to look at the man. He then answers, "It's Koichi Geo." He then disappears into a crowd of men going into the bathhouse.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

He just looks around the buildings. Most of them were made out of stone. He just sighs and continues to follow his guide. He's with his parents and his girl friend. Their guide is student by the name of Terj. Terj is eleven years old and very friendly. And he was stunned when he found that he could understand Terj, but then that's what the translation jutsu was made for.

He then sees something and asks their guide, "What's that?" He motions to a really odd looking bird. Terj pauses and turns to look at the lizard bird. "That's a _Fell'Tor$_, their a friendly race. Their among the friendlier race here to watch the exam. Other visiting races are _Jraz_, _IrKiv_, and three members of _Kir!ron_ race." Terj beams as he says this.

His girlfriend Riley asks, "What does a _Jraz_, _IrKiv_, and a _Kir!ron_ look like?" Terj thinks really hard and then begins slowly as they continue onwards. "A _Jraz_ is usually over six feet tall and have hard scales. They walk on their hind legs. They have claws a good two cm long on their hands; on their feet they have three cm long claws. The males have tail blades and the females just have a stripe leading from the base of their tail to the tip of their tails. They're digigrade and they look to be huge lizards."

Then they wait for Terj to continue. "_IrKiv_ are a flying race. They have wings for arms. I guess they look kind of like bats, but don't have any fur. They stand five and half feet tall and they have two fingers and a thumb on each wing. Their tails can be uses like another hand. And for _Kir!ron_, they're like a deer crossed with a horse. They have antlers and manes. Their front hooves are singular like a horse's and their hind ones are split like a deer's. They also have deer tails. Their kind of rare to see around here, so it's an honour to have three member here for this tournament."

He then asks, "Then that's all the races you're on speaking terms with?" Terj just snort and says, "Not at all! The friendly races are ten in total. I'm just naming which you're likely to see around Light village during this time." They all just look at each other and his father just coughs. They just continue on their way to the place prepared for them. His head's spinning from this new information. He wonders just how many other surprises there going to be.

(--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)

She watches at Gaara stare at a respective Elder. It made her uneasy for the woman looks kind of old. Then the old elder grins and says, "So, you're the one that's fighting our Starlight, huh?" They all kind of just blink at this. "Starlight?" She asks. "Koichi means Starlight. I'm Elder Ruki and just to let you know, I'm very much blind." Elder Ruki says. She just stares at the older woman. "Also, I'm a demon carrier myself. A great she-bear Demon at that." Elder Ruki states. A shiver moves down her spine. Her mouth is dry as while. Then the elder turns to face her and says, "It don't fear child. The bear and I are in agreement and have been for a good century at that. Come, I'll guide you to your building."

So they followed the respective elder away from the teleportation area. No really knowing why this great woman is giving them this great honour. She wonders if it might have something to do with Gaara being the carrier of a demon. For the first time, she wonders if maybe the reason for Gaara being the way he is might have something to do with the seal. For if Gaara's life span could reach that of this elder, then it would be a miracle.

As they walk through the village, Elder Ruki makes comments about building that they're seeing or a bit about local history. It was then she saw some kind of monster. "To you're left, is a member of the _Jraz_ race. If I'm not mistaken, it's my old friend Tewar." Elder Ruki says as the large lizard beast moves this way. "Greetings Ruki. I see you're showing around some guests. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Tewar Fazer. Leader of the Fazer tribe." Tewar greets them. "Still a charmer, huh? Tewar?" Elder Ruki asks the tall Tewar. "It's why we're here, Ruki. I wish you luck in any of your matches in a few weeks. I'll see you later Ruki." With that Tewar turns and leaves.

She looks over at her middle brother and he just looks at her. Then they continue on their way. She didn't know just what to make of this village. First touring around Leaf and now previously unknown village. She wonders if just what kind of life this people of Light live if they call such creatures friends.

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He grins as he greets Sellen. He was kind of stunned with the fact that Sellen didn't act like most girls his age when they first meet him. Sellen had just greeted him politely and then leaded him to where his staying. He then invited Sellen in for tea. He didn't know why his nervous around Sellen but he already knows that Sellen was more then able to defend herself.

He had noticed that Sellen was wearing a headband and asked if she might want to spar with him. It was one that he'll remember for the rest of his life.

It was a draw, he the last member of his clan sparred to a draw with a ninja from Light, and a girl at that. He as they got to know each other, he learnt that Sellen's clan has this simple eye bloodline limit. It mostly just let them see at night, but he was impressed and he soon found himself telling her more about his own bloodline limit.

In a few weeks he and Sellen found more in common then just bloodline limits, they grew close. He was learning a lot from Sellen, mostly about how to control his chakra. He's also been teaching her some of Leaf's jutsus as well.

They were on their way to where the exam was being held. They walk pass other humans and the other races that were visiting for the exam. He don't really care about them, as long as they don't bother him, he was fine with them.

They didn't talk but just enjoyed the walk. Sellen Okahey is taller then him. Sellen's hair is black and she wears it short. Sellen's eye color is a pale yellow. Sellen favours an odd metal device that rests on her right arm. It has two large blades that were a good five inches long. The weight doesn't slow her down one bit or keep her from doing jutsus. Sellen uses the device for offence of and defence of.

(--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)

He smiles as he walks with Elder Ruki and Koichi's great grandfather. He looks down at his grandson. He could tell that Konohamaru was more then a little excited. He also has to admit that what he's seen so far of this village, he liked.

He had been taken back by the idea of hosting the tournament here at Light village had been a surprise. He had only Gai's opinions on the village, so he sent a group of chuunin to have a look around. When they came back, their thoughts were quite positive, they even had a chance to talk to some members of four races that were thinking of sending some of their people to come and watch it as well.

He still couldn't get the thought of other races that were friendly, wanting to watch this exam. But then, with three of Light's genin part of this exam, it gives these other races a chance to see what the lands beyond the Taijin Mountain range could do.

Then he finds his grandson pointing, "Look at those, grandpapa!" He looks and notices feathered lizards. "I believe there called _Fell'Tor$_." He tells his grandson. "Are they dangerous?" His grandson asks. Elder Ruki answers, "Only if you attack them first. They're among the other races here to watch the exam. I believe you grandfather told you about them." His grandson smiles and says, "Sorry, I forgot." He smiles and they then continue on.

(--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)

She sits with a group of feathered lizards. She thinks there smiling as she sits down. "I take it, you're from Leaf?" The one to her right asks. "Yes, I'm Hinata." She tells that one. "I'm Ko'Sil. The one to your left is Hor'Ja. We're siblings you see." Ko'Sil says. Then Hor'Ja says, "I've heard a bit about you from Ruki." Ko'Sil then answers, "You better remember about that! It's something to discuss late." She then asks, "I don't know if this in improper but are you male or females?" Hor'Ja chirps at this and Ko'Sil answers, "I'm female, he's a he. You see how colourful my brother is? That's usually how males are, their the more colourful ones of our kind." "Thank you." She says and Hor'Ja just nods his head.

She looks around this huge area. "Just what is this place used for?" She asks the siblings. "Hor'Ja answers. "It's usually used when the trials of the Dor'Sharp are usually held. I believe that the rank is like you're jonin." She nods, kind of understanding what he was talking about. "Are there any other ranks?" She asks. Ko'Sil answers, "Not many, it's just common to refer to all genin as rookies until they're about fourteen years old. Then around that time they are called Hunters. Then if they feel ready to advance, they take the trails of the Dor'Sharp. For the trials to start, there usually need twenty Hunters to apply. The next rank doesn't have any nicknames or common names." She thinks this over and then asks, "Then how to they know that rank even exists?" Hor'Ja answers, "The way that person walks and the look in their eyes. They might not get a name to go by, but everyone hears of them, though. Don't worry about it, you'll get use to in time." She sighs.

She found that she already likes Ko'Sil and Hor'Ja. She didn't stutter once in talking with them, and they look more intimating then her clan! She just had to look at their claws to tell her that they could very easily defend themselves.

**To Readers:**

I remembering that the elder could see the future, right? Hinata has that ability and is not seeing possible futures part of that ability? The vision with the Nine-tailed Fox demon changed in the first chapter, so the future isn't set on one path. As for the autopilot, she knows all the moves but was too scare to ever use them. Hinata went into a trance before Neji attacked, so all her fears and restrictions were dropped. And as to the part about Ruki, she just sent her spirit out of her body and then decided to speak with Hinata. So, it wasn't a flashback or anything, just a skill Ruki hasn't taught Koichi yet. Koichi did some spirit walking too, to get the answers for the first exam. As to the part with following the original story line, I did it to get Haku and to get them to Light village.


	13. Chapter 13

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 13

(---Koichi---)

He walks out with the others. He could very easily see Gaara out the corner of his eye. They soon step into the light and are now out of the underground room. It's where Hunters wait for their own trials to get the Dor'Sharp rank. He knows that this chuunin rank meant nothing in Light, but it did mean something to Leaf and the rest of the ninja villages.

He had been stunned to learn that this whole thing had been in planning for a good three months. He wonders how many visitors from Leaf and other countries have found Light village. For the fighters families and friends arrived long before the Hokage released where the fight would take place to the leaders of the other countries.

He sighs and snaps out of his thoughts. He looks to where the examiner is. He look up and finds the holograms of the field are up and running. He hears sharp in takes of breath and turns to find the others also looking up in surprise.

Soon the jutsu for sound is active. The Hokage then does a short speech and then everyone but Terish and Yue walk to the tent to watch the match. The examiner then begins the match.

Terish and Yue then charge each other, they exchange punches and kicks. Each of them are also blocking or dodging the attacks as they also throw some. Few of the punches and kicks hit their marks. They then got bored doing this for a good eight minutes.

They retreated away from each other. Then Terish disappears and Yue closes his eyes and looks relaxed. He then sighs and knows that this was going to be a long battle. He just relaxes and waits for it.

Soon Terish appears and attacks from behind Yue. Yue quickly ducks and rolls to the left. Terish then throws kunai at Yue. Yue uses his wooden shield to block the attack. Then Yue takes out one of his swords and goes into a stance. Terish then also takes a stance. Soon Yue charges Terish with the sword to his right and swings at Terish. Terish moves forward and grabs Yue's left arm and swings Yue toward that ground. Yue rolls and uses his sword to block a kunai aim for the back of his head.

Yue gets up and then waits for Terish to attack. Terish then charges with kunai in both hands. They exchange blow and the sound of metal hitting metal ring out. Yue doesn't continue to back up, knowing that Terish could have a trap somewhere in this arena.

Now Terish is moving back but in a circular pattern. Yue then pauses and stands his ground. "Cleaver." Yue says and then waits. Terish just sighs and charges Yue. The kunai mean sword and once again the rings of metal are heard through out the arena.

Then Yue leaps into the air, letting go of his sword too. Nobody knows what he did as he flipped through the air, only that once Yue lands, roots began to come out of the ground. Terish cuts at the roots, but there's too many. Soon Terish is held in the air by the roots and Yue just retrieves his sword.

The examiner then declares Yue the winner and the crowd claps. Yue then waits for Terish to follow before entering the tent. "I should have guessed." Was all Terish would say as they entered. Soon Kin and Temari walk onto the field.

As soon as the match begins, Kin tries the bell trick, but Temari just uses her fan to send the bells back towards the Sound Nin. It didn't take long for Temari to knock Kin out with just using her fan.

Soon Lee and Ganmaru walk onto the field as Kin is taken off the field. Soon their match begins and Lee charges Ganmaru before Ganmaru has a chance to block the attack. Ganmaru then quickly as he could does a seal. Then it looks like Ganmaru is no longer there, but he could tell that Ganmaru just casted a genjutsu.

He knows that next time they see Ganmaru, it'll be when Ganmaru's ready. Lee just waits for Ganmaru to show himself. Soon clones of Ganmaru appear. Was it his imagination, or did it look like some kind of heat coming off the water clones…

Lee attacks and when he busts one of the clones, it looks like Lee got shocked. He wonders which were the ice shard clones for it would make scene to use both types of clones. The next few clone Lee destroyed were the ice shard ones and then an electrified one.

Then the real Ganmaru appears by grabbing Lee's ankles. Then Lee finds himself up to his head in dirt. Ganmaru's other clones then disappears and the real Ganmaru appears on top of the ground. Then Ganmaru puts a kunai by Lee's neck. Sighing, Lee says, "I surrender." The winner is Ganmaru. Ganmaru then helps Lee out of the ground and together they walk into the tent.

(----------------------------------Sasuke--------------------------------------------)

He watches as Gaara and Koichi walk on to the field. He turns and says, "How long until Koichi flattens this guy?" Sellen's eyes spark and she then answers, "I say with in thirty minutes. Gaara is a demon carrier, too you know." He just raises an eyebrow and says, "I say within fifteen minutes." Sellen just grins and says, "You're on. I win, you answer a question that I ask." "And if I win?" He asks, teasingly. "I'll teach you one of my family techniques?" Sellen says. He just grins at that and pretends to think it over. "Fine." He says.

They then turn to watch as Gaara's sand begins to come out of the gourd. The sand is also taking that shape of a shield around Gaara. Soon they couldn't see anything from within the shield of sand. Koichi look at the ball of sand and even walks around it a few times.

Then Koichi just sighs and does a seal for a fire jutsu. He wasn't the only one puzzled at this. He sees Sellen smirk at this and he just continues to watch it.

Koichi then finishes his seals and soon fire begins to circle the sand. Then the circle of fire grows until it engulfed the area where the ball of sand was. Then as they watch the sand begins to put out the fire. They watch as the ball of sand grows, but some edges of the sand look like they were seaming. Then what looks to be a hand reaches out for Koichi but stops short of Koichi. Then the sand ball opens and they all gasp in shock at what Gaara now looks like.

It looks like sand has merged with Gaara's body. For now Gaara has a tail made out of sand. The left side of Gaara's face looks like a fangs dripping out of the guy's mouth. The whole of Gaara's right arm is covered in sand.

Then something happens over where the Hokage and the council elders are sitting. The examiner just says calmly, "Nothing to worry about, just keep your eyes on the match." He looks over at Sellen and Sellen just shrugs. They return to watching Gaara and Koichi on the field below.

Koichi is dodging what looks to be daggers made out of sand. Now he begins to wonder if Koichi's just prolonging this match. He sighs and just continues to watch the sight of Koichi dodging the sand daggers. The more this match goes on, the more it looks like Gaara's transforming into a monster, or a demon made out of sand.

Then Koichi begins a series of seal, and a scream of pain erupts from where the elders and the Hokage are sitting. Whatever Koichi did, it didn't do anything to Gaara, but then, that might be the whole point. "I think I'm getting a headache." He says out loud. "Just relax, I looks like Koichi used a Soul Burner seal on someone. I think he's going to begin his real attacks on Gaara." Sellen tells him. He looks puzzled, "Soul Burner seal?" Sellen answers, "The seal not just attachés to the body, but the soul as well. The more chakra used to place the seal, the harder it is to seal it up or to escape the effects of it. I remember Koichi talking about it with Terish and Yue once." He sighs and chalks it up to something Koichi learnt from here.

He looks at Koichi and just stares at what happened around Koichi. It looks like red chakra is leaking out of Koichi and is taking the shape of a beast. As he watches nine tails of red chakra appear at the butt of the beast. Soon the red chakra takes the form of a fox demon with nine tails.

He turns to find a large sand creature standing where Gaara used to be. Then Gaara appears on the creature's forehead. Then the sand creature begins to talk. He wonders if the thing was ever sane, for the way it gives yells of joy, you'd it was playing a game instead of fighting.

The sand creature's attack pass through the red chakra fox, then the fox attacks, it's solid. All Koichi does is stand there, leaking red chakra. Then the sand creature grabs the fox's neck and tries to move the fox's head away from it. It might have worked, if the fox was a breathing creature, but the fox wasn't a breathing creature. Soon thing begins to happen at the spot that the fox is biting. The sand begins to drip off the creature made of sand. The sand creature begins to thrash about and this wakes up Gaara.

The sand creature breaks apart and the red chakra fox does too. Koichi then snaps out of whatever trance he was in and watches as Gaara falls to the ground. The examiner then declares Koichi the winner. He then looks at the time and finds that Sellen won the bet. He groans and wonders just what she wants to know.

(-----------------------------------Hinata-------------------------------------------)

She just watches as Koichi heads for the tent and people come to pick up Gaara. She did know that Koichi had a demon, but to see an image of a chakra red fox was just beyond anything she ever imagined.

Soon the match between Temari and Yue begins and both stand there, studying each other for a few minutes. Then Yue makes the first move, his body is covered in blue chakra and soon what stands in Yue's place as a tall, muscular being with white hair running down the back and on the arms. The being looks feral and has very well toned muscles.

"I heard about a Garou being born to the Fufu clan." Ko'Sil says. "A Garou?" She asks. "That's what Yue's bloodline limit is. It leases the person transform into what you see before you. The last two times, both of them had been females with that ability. It's very rare for a Garou to occur more then once every four generations." Ko'Sil says. She blinks and looks back to the fight between the two.

Temari looks stunned at seeing Yue transform. Then Temari recovers and opens her fan. Yue charges Temari and Temari blocks Yue's attack by using her fan. Then Yue reacts quickly and moves to his right and attacks Temari from that side. Temari is sent flying and Yue follows. Temari uses her fan and glides up into the air and out of reach of Yue.

Temari circles around and then begins to drop to the ground. Temari swings her fan and the wind cuts some of Yue's cloths. Yue then reaches into his pouch and throws three kunai at Temari. Temari uses her fan to stop the kunai, but Yue used the time to get behind Temari. Yue grabs Temari and then places a hand around her neck. Temari tries to escape the grasp, but it's no use, Yue has her.

After three minutes and the examiner declares Yue the winner of the match. Yue then lets go of Temari and they then walk into the tent together. Then before Koichi and Ganmaru walked on to the field, Koichi then says, "I forfeit. I'm not recovered from the last fight." Then the examiner declares Ganmaru the winner by default.

Yue then joins Ganmaru on the field. Yue hadn't transformed back, so he was still a Garou. They then wait for the examiner to begin the match. Soon both charge each other, with Yue being the first to reach Ganmaru. In no time, Yue began to his attack and Ganmaru could do nothing but block and dodge.

In time Yue seemed to calm down a bit and retreated from Ganmaru. She could tell from here that Yue was having some kind of problem. "What's wrong with him?" She asked. Hor'Ja answers, "Instincts, Yue is viewing Ganmaru as an intruder. Considering the fact that Yue didn't get a chance to rest after him match with Temari, it a wonder he's not roughing Ganmaru up more then he has." She looks over at Hor'Ja and then at Ko'Sil. Then she turns back to watching the match.

It looks like Ganmaru knew just what kind of line he's walking with Yue, for Ganmaru didn't make any sudden moves. Yue is taking long and deep breathes. Ganmaru moves slowly and places his hand on a pouch, not his kunai pouch though. Then slowly Ganmaru opens it and digs around for something. What Ganmaru takes out is a smoke bomb and he uses it by dropping it by his own feet. Yue charges at this but Ganmaru seems to have disappeared. Yue snarls at this and turns his head this way and that, in hopes of finding the place where Ganmaru might be hiding.

Then Yue leaps forward and has his right hand stretch out and rakes that spot as he lands. Ganmaru falls to the ground with light bleeding. Then Ganmaru just surrenders to Yue.

Yue then kind of turns and leaves the arena. Many didn't seem to think this hash of Yue, it seems that this whole thing has stirred up Yue's blood a little too much. The Hokage then says that there's to be a feast this night and that they enjoy themselves.

Soon everyone gets up and begins to leave. She is stopped by Ko'Sil and the female _Fell'Tor$_ then says, "You could come with us, we can visit some more. The meeting starts in an hour and a half, we have plenty of time to chat." She smiles weakly at Ko'Sil and then nods. "Thank you."


	14. Chapter 14

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 14

(---Tewar---)

She looks at the gathering of other leaders and of Light's elders. Her eyes then rest on Leaf's leader, the third Hokage. She looks the old human up and down. The man wasn't as old as many of Light's elders, but it seems that many of his council members wish for Koichi to be put down, for fear of the young child's power and connection to the demon that almost destroyed their village.

She gets thoughtful on thinking about that one. She knows that Ruki has been teaching the boy and many that have met him like him. And from what she saw today, she was more incline to say that Leaf lost all rights to the boy when the boy's father stole him. With that kind of control of demonic chakra at such a young age, she could understand just why the boy learns so quickly. The demon also must have helped in that display too, maybe wanting to remind everyone just what he looks like and that he's still around.

She snaps out of her thoughts as Kari the _IrKiv_ began the meeting. "I believe we are all here to speak of matter concerning the relations with the elemental countries. We have the third Hokage here for his village of hidden Leaf and Temari for her village of hidden Sand." Everyone turns to look at the young female human and the elder. Both just nods their heads and Kari continues with what she was saying. "Since it's been confirmed that the leader of hidden Sand has been died for quiet sometime, Temari has been promoted and voted to be the temporary reprehensive for hidden Sand for this meeting. So, now, I believe that Hokage wishes to speak." Kari nods to the elder from Leaf and Hokage then stands. Kari then settles back down on her chair.

Hokage looks around at them then begins. "I believe you all know some details about a short meeting that I had with some members of heads of clans from Leaf?" Many nod at this and Hokage sighs and continues, "For those of you who might not know, some of the heads of clan wish to have Koichi Geo killed." There are many who objected strongly to this for many growls and snarls greeted this news.

What surprised her and many others was that the only _Kir!ron_ stallion by the name of Depth spoke out, "Do you think that Koichi is dangerous, elder Hokage?" This stops many of the growling and snarls. Hokage smiles and says, "Of course Koichi is dangerous! So is every one in this room!" That causes many to laugh at this. Hokage continues, "But the infant was stolen and didn't think about the baby until Gai came back and reported about Koichi. Koichi hasn't been a member of hidden Leaf for all these years and it seems that elder Ruki and the rest of Light village have long since welcomed him and accepted him better then his birth village ever did for the short amount of time he lived among us." Hokage drifts off and many relax by this.

Ruki then asks, "Then I take it you're not going to try anything concerning my student?" Hokage just nods his head. "No reason to make another enemy out of a friend." Hokage states then sits down. Ruki then continues to speak. "I don't know if anyone has informed you Temari, but we're also here to spoke about some exchanging of genin teams as well. You see a girl from Leaf is showing abilities that aren't truly understood in her home village. Her name is one Hinata Hyuuga and during her match with her cousin, she had a vision." Ruki pauses to let Temari get a handle on that bit of information. "I know that elder Yusuke," Yusuke nods his head in acknowledgement, "Is willing to begin Hinata's training as soon as possible. I think it's time to hear other's opinions on these matters." Then Ruki finishes saying this, she sits down.

Thus the meeting soon became heated. She herself had to admit that some of the arguments were just plain nonsense. She just waits for her turn to speak out.

(-----------------------------------------Depth--------------------------------------)

He is the only stallion out of the three _Kir!ron_ that are attending this meeting. He is black stallion with a white mane. His antlers have four prongs. He is a good five hundred and thirty-seven years old and he still didn't know what to make of humans. Human's have only been around for a good two hundred years and they also don't live very long, much like the _Fell'Tor$_.

He watches as the debates simmer down and then as Ruki, Ko'Sil, Ko'Sil's brother, Hor'Ja, Tewar, and then Hokage begin to reason their way into getting an agreement for a short treaty. The treaty will be renewed after five years. He lets Ruth and Gem do most of the talking during this.

Now that the meeting looks to be coming to an end, he decides to speak up. "I wonder, how well do you think you village, hidden Leaf, will deal with learning about other intelligent races?" Many turn and look at him. He waits for Hokage to answer. "I don't think they'll really believe this. I don't mean to offend any of you, but they'll just shrug this off and just focus on the humans that live this far south." Hokage answers. He then says, "Then in a way, others of your village will find it hard to interact with some of our kind. I wonder, maybe the other races should also send some members of our own race to hidden Leaf. For, isn't it better to see an actual being then to just hear of one? Is it hard to dismiss something when you see it and experience it? For I think few of you're civilians will ever find themselves this far south or any reason to ever come to Light village." He pauses and Zil Katar of the Katar clan, a _Jraz_ male, then spoke out. "So you are proposing that members of our kind go north? What about their safety!" He then counters, "When has a _Jraz_ ever lost to a human? Or a _Fell'Tor$_? It would seem more likely if attacked, it would be the attackers that will find death, not a _Jraz_ or a _Fell'Tor_! We would also be giving hidden Leaf a chance to show weather they could accept other intelligent being other then the ones they raise! For is that not what lead to Koichi being stolen in the first place? That the humans of hidden Leaf couldn't accept that fact that there are things out there that could very much be stronger then them? For I think that it's high time that these northern countries begin to accept the presents of other beings that could very easily kill them without a single thought or effort." He looks around and then adds, "I also heard a bit about that Gaara. The poor boy's seal is unfinished and seems to think that killing is all he could ever be good at. I think we can't just avoid this topic either."

He finishes and then settles down to listen to other's points on this. He had just stirred up the meeting and he also brought something that they didn't want to talk about into light. The hinds looked at him and then snorted. He can't help but wonder just how his great-great granddad will do when he hears about this. His great-great granddad is High Lord of the great herds and that's why he is even here. He also has hopes of being part of the group that goes north. He wants to make his own trail in the great history of his race and going north sounds like a good start.

(---------------------------------------Ko'Sil---------------------------------------)

She sighs in relief at finally getting out of that meeting. She couldn't believe that Depth brought that bit about sending members of other races to hidden Leaf, but the stallion did. So now they are selecting members of the _IrKiv_, _Jraz_, and of her own race. For Depth had volunteered to go north for his race.

She looks at her clutch brother and finds that Hor'Ja looks dazed. She can't help but laugh, AKA chirp, at the way he's looking. "It won't be that bad! They voted for you and Depth to be co-leaders! Imagine that, a brother of mine working with a _Kir!ron_! That'll make our pack happy. To think that a member of the _Na'Tic_ pack going not only north but as a co leader! Our other siblings and parents will be so proud of you!" She tells him. Her brother just sighs and says, "I was hoping to stick around and court Uy'Kur! Not go north!" She cocks her head and snorts, "You still got a good eight years before you can life mate, just think of all the females that'll be attracted to you when you come back! You might even find one that's much better then that flirt of a female."

She takes a good hard look at her brother, like her, Hor'Ja is the same age she, twenty-two years old. They were hatched in the same clutch, they had a sister from the same clutch too. Her brother's scales are a copper colour and on his legs was a brown stripe on the front. Most of Hor'Ja's feathers are dark blues and a few light reds. All in all, Hor'Ja looks very healthy and in good shape.

They soon find Hinata speaking with Koichi and a young female. Hinata turns and nods at them. They then begin to walk over to the small group of three. "You fought a good match, young Koichi." She says, as they get closer. Koichi turns and says, "Thank you. This is my little sister, Jeri Geo." They turn and nod at Jeri, and Jeri nods in turn. "To see a great red fox made totally out of demonic chakra takes a large amount of control. It seems that Ruki has taught you well." She says. Hinata looks startled at this and Koichi just smiles, saying, "I also must give a great deal of credit to Blood Trail. He's been quiet good at drilling me into how to his chakra wisely."

They spoke a bit more about how things turned out and then bid the three humans farewell. They then continue on to get ready for the feast. She wonders just how Hinata will react to the news of her team staying in Light village for the next five years. She can't wait to find out!

(----------------------------------------Koichi--------------------------------------)

He watches as the two _Fell'Tor$_ walk away. He then looks over at Hinata and then says, "Hope to see you later then, Hinata. Ready Jeri?" Jeri says, "Bye Hinata!" Hinata just nods and his sister and him continue on their way.

They had come by to see their great grandfather, but found him busy talking with Temari and two other elders. They then came upon Hinata and they stopped and talked about what they were doing tonight. He felt bad that none of her clan came with her, but from what he could tell, Hinata made some new friends. For it looks like the two _Fell'Tor$_ know Hinata and seem to like her. He hopes to meet up with the other genin from Leaf before the night's out.

They soon make it home and their mom is in the kitchen. "Hey mom! We didn't get a chance to speak with granddad!" He shouts as they head up the stairs. "You're father's using the washroom! Also I have your best clothes out!" Their mom yells. "Thanks!" Both of them shout. They split and headed into their rooms.

He sighs and plumps down on his bed; careful of his best cloths, and just lie there staring at the ceiling. He sighs and knows that he did the right thing, forfeiting like that. He saw how Yue handled himself in the last battle and knew that it could have been him pounding away at Ganmaru. He smiles sadly at that thought. His team will be remaining at Light village, for a few other genin teams will be heading to hidden Leaf. He's training under Ruki and Blood Trail will also be increasing. He'll miss the rookie nine of Leaf, for they have long since become friends of his.


	15. Chapter 15

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 15

(---Hinata---)

She sighs as she walks around with her cousin's teammate, Lee Rock. It seems that her cousin or Tenten could make it to Light village and Gai was off visiting with other Light ninja. So when Lee found out that she was here all by herself, which was about three days after she arrived, Lee has been spending free time with her.

She smiles a bit as she looks around. Light village seems to use chakra for many things then what hidden Leaf did. It's nice and black out and the streets are lit up with a light jutsu. They just glow softly and if she were to look up, she'd see the stars very clearly. She wonders how they could have music playing throughout this part of the city. They had passed the area where the band was and where the dance floor is too.

She pauses as Lee stops and looks at some weapons at one of the booths. She then blinks as she hears Kiba's voice say, "Hey Hinata! Where have you been hiding yourself?" She turns and finds Shino and Kiba behind her. "J-just w-walking a-around w-wit-th Lee." She stutters. Kiba grins a bit and says, "So, Lee's taking his defeat ok?" She just nods her head and then Lee finishes looking at the weapons. Lee blinks and then grins at Kiba and Shino. They then continue on their way together. Lee chatting with Kiba about his match against Ganmaru, she and Shino just listen to this, she feels much better now then before. She gives thanks for having such wonderful friends.

(--------------------------------------Haku------------------------------------------)

He walks about the feast grounds; his companion is Brim, a young _IrKiv_. He made friends with the friendly _IrKiv_ a good week ago and already they act like they've never been apart. He is already enjoying himself at this feast, for in a few days time, he'll be having his exams on what he's learnt about Light village and tested on the jutsu he has also learnt from his teachers. He didn't get a chance to watch any of the matches, but he listened to Brim's accounts of it.

Brim was also kind enough to talk about what happened over at the box, of course he promised not to talk about it too. For Brim got this story from Kari, the leader of most of the _IrKiv_ that came to watch the exam. According to Brim, this human impersonating the leader of hidden Sand tried to kill the Hokage and some of the members of the council of Light. It didn't go as planned though. _'Elder Ruki was the first to send out the smoke bomb and then when Orochimaru grab elder Ruki thinking that she was Hokage, I wonder who throw the first punch? Then the examiner made that speech during the match. I wonder when Koichi placed that seal one that snake Nin? I wonder who stole Orochimaru out of the trap he sprung? I know that three of Orochimaru's bodyguards are very much died though. I help check that one guy out myself. I wonder what kind of seal that was on her neck.'_

He snaps out of his thoughts and turns to see four hidden Leaf genin walk about the streets. He notices the only girl of the group and then turns to check the time. It's getting close to when the feast is going to start and he turns to Brim, "I think it might be a good idea to head to the square, Brim." Brim looks up at him and then says, "Then let us begin on our way, Haku."

They then found themselves walking with that group from Leaf. They introduce themselves and soon Brim begins to talk with Kiba and Lee about what it's like to fly. He then turns and talks to Shino and Hinata about little things, mostly about training differences of what he did in the past and what his doing now that he's in Light. He found that Hinata was also of a bloodline limit and that Shino has insects living in his body. They soon found themselves at the square and they kind of break apart and head in different directions.

(-----------------------------------------Ganmaru----------------------------------)

They sat at the table reserved for his group. They were among the first to get their food. Soon a long line has formed and in that line were not only humans but also members of the other races. He also did a bit of a double take at seeing Haku with a member of that flying race they were told about.

He then turns and finds Gai sitting with Kakashi and Hinata's teacher. He also wonders who the five other ninja were though. He decides that they were also teachers and focuses in on his parents and Riley.

He looks sharply at the mention of engagement between Riley and him. Riley and him share a look and then they both say at the same time, "Isn't it a bet early to be talking about marriage? We're only fourteen!" His parents just laugh a bit and his father then says, "Engagement now and marriage when you're eighteen." He just stares and then his mother adds, "You two have been on and off for a good year and a half already. You both don't date anyone after one date and you both seem to talk through your fights. Your parents also agree with this idea, Riley. If you do find love outside the two of you, then the engagement can be cancelled. Considering how well you did at your first chuunin exam, if Ganmaru doesn't pass this time, he'll make the next time for sure."

He was stunned that his mother mentions this, for it never occurred to him that he'd pass this time. Riley and him looked at each other and then Riley turns away and says, "I guess it wouldn't hurt." He just nods, wondering just what the future will bring. He surprises himself by even having a clear picture with Riley by his side. They then continue to eat and to enjoy the sights and sounds around them. He blushes a bit at the thought of his wedding night.

(------------------------------------------Hinata------------------------------------)

She sits with her teammates, Lee, Sasuke, and Sasuke's new friend, Sellen. Akamaru was back home; his clan didn't want Akamaru bothering the other beings that were coming to watch the exams. Kiba seems down about not having his best friend here, but looks forward to speaking with some of the other beings here. For it looked like Kiba enjoyed Brim's company. She hopes that she'll also see more of Ko'Sil and Hor'Ja. She couldn't really tell _Fell'Tor$_ apart yet but knows that they were here at this feast right now.

Everyone is in great spirits, for soon the promotions will be spoken of. It was also looks like Hokage and the other important members of this gathering look ready to begin. The ones on food duty are now beginning to take what's left over away. She wonders if there'll be any dessert.

Soon an elderly woman stands up and everyone quits down. Then the elder begins, "Greetings to you who have chosen to be with us for this feast. I also congratulate Yue Fufu for winning the chuunin exam. I'm proud that our newest team of rookies have made it as far as they did. I also congratulate Temari of hidden Sand for her promotion and for being voted to represent her village on the meeting following the end of the matches." Many applaud the blond from hidden Sand. Temari just nods her head from the table she's sharing with her team.

Soon the applaud ends and the elder continues, "I also have other new as well. Nine teams from Light village will be journeying to hidden Leaf as the three teams sent return home. As such, a team from hidden Leaf will be remaining in Light village." The elder pauses and then continues, "Also a group is being formed by our friends of other races. The leaders of this party are Hor'Ja and Depth." A _Fell'Tor$_ and _Kir!ron_ both stand up and nod as they're applauded. Then they sit back down. The elder continues, "This group are accepting volunteers to go to hidden Leaf. For those interested, you have two weeks to sign up."

Hokage then stands up and the elder says, "I believe that the Third wishes to speak." With that, the elder sits down. The Hokage then begins, "As you all might have guessed, something happened during the match between Gaara of Sand and Koichi of Light. It seems that a alliance between hidden Sand and hidden Sound planned to attack our village, but due to the relocation, the attack didn't get a chance to happen. For now, Orochimaru has assassinated the Kazekage and Orochimaru also impersonated the Kazekage during that match. Orochimaru also tried to assassinate myself and as many of the elders of Light as he could. Luckily he didn't succeed and he has fled." The Hokage pauses for there were murmurs throughout the crowd. "So that is all the news for now and those of you who might pass, a ninja will be sent to you house in the morning. Now I believe that dessert is ready to be served." With that Hokage then sits down and everyone turns to where the supper had been and now find new things to eat.

She smiles as Sellen drags Sasuke towards the dessert table and as Kiba then follows suit. She gets up and looks at Shino. "Not hungry?" She's proud that she didn't stutter that. Shino just nods and she then finds Lee coming over to walk with her. She smiles at Lee and they then walk to the end of the line.

(--------------------------------------Deidara---------------------------------------)

She just stares at the campsite that she and her partner had built. It looks her partner just took off. She looks around for any tracks and finds nothing. She then sits by the fire and waits.

After a good two hours, her partners not back yet and odd growls and yowls are beginning to ring through the night. She swallows hard and wonders if this was worth it. She then hears a scream and that does it. She packs as fast as she could and soon is running back north, not caring if they think her a coward. There are just some things in this world that just shouldn't be tempted.

**To Readers:**

About Koichi giving Orochimaru the Soul Burning seal, he didn't like Orochimaru at first glance. The villages focused their attention on the other teams from Light, and ignored or glared hatefully at Koichi and his friends. Kabuto did approach the group, but Koichi and them were busy talking among themselves, so they didn't listen to what Kabuto had to say. Like in the normal story lines, Orochimaru tried to kill the Hokage, but didn't succeed do to not only Koichi but from the other elders, for the elder's of Light are still powerful. As for Orochimaru's interest in Yue was due to the fact that Yue has a very rare bloodline limit and for the knowledge of Light village. As for Hinata and Koichi falling for each other, that's a long way away. Kabuto will also be showing up in a chapter soon and as for Akatsuki, do you think that they are as lucky as Gai on crossing that mountain range? I think a cave drake killed one of them… As to Koichi forfeiting, Koichi wasn't mentally ready to fight again and if he had, it would have ended up with Ganmaru having a very close brush with death and him being disqualified. It took a lot out of him to shape Blood Trail's chakra as he did. As to the different races, I just don't get why there can't be such beings, if there could be demons and summons, why not creatures like a cave drake or Oni? I also promise that Depth and the group heading north will have a few encounters of their own with evil guys, you know, like trophy hunters and others just hating the very thought of smart 'beasts'. Thanks for your thoughts and I hope this answers some of your questions.


	16. Chapter 16

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 16

(---Yue---)

He just continues to pound on the training log with his fists. He started this morning just after he awoke. He feels so ashamed at how he won the match between Ganmaru and himself. He should have mimicked Koichi and just forfeited. He almost couldn't help himself, he had so much energy and he just wanted to break free. He could have done some real damage on Ganmaru.

His left fist connect with the post and he stops for a moment and then turns around. He blinks in surprise that his twin is standing there. Ruby walks over to him and then when she is a good foot away she begins. "I had a feeling you'd be here. You think too much, you know?" He just sighs and answers, "Sometimes you don't think at all." Ruby makes a face and counters, "Thinking is so over rated. So, other then the fact that you won the whole exam, you don't look too happy." He sighs and then lends on the post, his arms crossed in front of him. "I could have really hurt someone, you know. I should have asked for a few minutes to calm down, to give myself some time to recover, but I didn't. I'm so stupid!"

He just looks at the ground and silences between them begin. After a good three minutes, Ruby then says softly, "If what you say is true, then you would have killed him, not just toss Ganmaru around like a rag doll. You have to focus on the fact that you didn't hurt him too much. Ganmaru did surrender, so he had a good idea at you mental state of health." He looks up and into his twin's eyes. He then says, "For someone who claims to hate thinking, you're really good at it." Ruby sends him a death glare and says, "And if you tell anyone, dear brother, I'll have you skinned and stuffed! Now, lets get out of here. I think you might want to hang with Koichi and Terish. I know I have a guy to flirt with." Ruby turns and leads the way.

He grins a bit at his sister's back and then begins to walk. They might be different as night and day, but that didn't stop them from having their moments. He couldn't wait to be with his best friends and teammates. He knew that his problem will never be a huge as Koichi, but they were the same in the fact that they both could do some serious damage if they just lose control. Koichi more so then him, for the simple fact about having a being living in him. He wonders if he could also speak to Ganmaru about what happened.

(------------------------------------Sasuke------------------------------------------)

He looks around the table and wonders just how Sellen talked him into having lunch with her family. Around the table are Sellen's older brother, nicknamed Cross, Sellen's mother and father, plus her grandparents from both sides of her family. He wonders if Sellen's other relatives are planning on popping in just to have a look at him.

To say that he is nervous was like saying that a rabbit was just nervous when cornered by a hungry fox. He was scared out of his mind! He didn't know just what to do, for he never had to worry about something like this before. He had always just focused on getting stronger as to kill his older brother. Now things have changed, they started to change back during that mission to Wave country. He has made friends and now it looks like he also was beginning to get interested in girls. He no longer just focuses on killing his brother, but on other things now. He also was much happier.

Cross passes him a bowl of fruit. He thanks Cross and takes some of them and then passes them to Sellen. He then waits for some of the other bowls with food in them. Soon they finish passing the food bowls around and then begin to eat. He starts with the meat that was being served. He finds it to be really good; it wasn't dry or overly spicy.

Soon they finish off the first helpings and once again pass the food dishes around the table. About this time Cross asks, "So, from what I hear, you're an orphan." He blinks and answers, "Yes, my whole clan was killed a few years back." Sellen's father comments, "It must have been hard, even now not to have someone to talk to or to train you in your families techniques." He nods and answers, "My family had a hidden library of scrolls. I find it hard to decode them and then to figure out just how to do the techniques on them. Few outside my family knows about this library or about them being coded."

They finish passing around the dishes of food. Then they again eat their meal. He finds it odd about how this whole lunch was going. The whole passing of the food dishes and then about having more then one helping is so different the what happens back home. They also didn't use chopsticks all the time either. He finds that they have forks, spoons, and knives. He had to admit that it was much easier to cut his food by using a fork to hold it and then using his knife to cut it.

Soon they again finish what is on their plates and the Sellen's mother's mother says, "I think I've had enough, Yolei." The other grandparents also nod their agreement at that statement. Then Cross begins to reach around the table to get more food. He watches as Sellen's father and then Sellen herself also do this.

He then decides that it is now acceptable to reach for more. He reaches about for more food. Soon everyone begins to talk as they take more food. The conversation doesn't head in his direction and he feels very relieved about that. He also wonders if they had any of that dessert from last night.

(-----------------------------------Ravis--------------------------------------------)

He sighs as he watches as his daughter races pass him to get to Koichi. Jeri talked him into taking her fishing outside of the village and they now return just in time to start supper. They catch a grand total of seven fish, only three were over a foot long.

He carries his catch and Jeri's into the kitchen. He smiles a bit as he finds his son, Terish, Yue, and three other teens in the living room as he passes it on his way to the kitchen. He then listens as Koichi introduces the other teens as he then begins to clean the fish.

After gutting all seven fish, he decides to keep two of the foot longs out and freezes the other five fish. Soon he begins to supper as he begins to put spices onto the two fish. Then finishing, he puts them onto a wooden plank and sticks them into the oven to cook.

He then heads up to have a shower before continuing to make supper. He knows that his wife has a mission and will be back later tonight. He smiles as Koichi then points out to Jeri about how badly she smells. He sighs as he walks up the stairs. It's good to have his son home.

(---------------------------------------Depth----------------------------------------)

He sighs as he walks back to the house he shares with the hinds. The day was a long one, full of meetings and little details. He also got to know Hor'Ja more too. He knew that many wanted to go north, if only to find out what it was like, but he didn't recon the shear number of them. It seems that the group will number somewhere under two hundred if this continues.

He also know that the Hokage and some of the hidden Leaf's clan heads were leaving today to head back to begin work on houses designed for them. Light village has long since had a whole section of their village designed with members of the ten races they were on friendly terms with. He wonders if any of the other races other then the ones that came to watch the exams will be sending members north with this group. His thoughts drift along those lines as he finds his bed and lowers himself on it. Soon he has fallen asleep and dreams of storms and of light.

(---------------------------------------Hinata---------------------------------------)

She didn't know just how they got to Koichi's house, but they were now here and now having supper with Koichi's father, Jeri, Terish, Yue, and Koichi. She hears that Ganmaru and Lee have passed the exam as had Terish. Koichi and Yue didn't seem to mind that they didn't pass into chuunin level.

But then, she remembers what Ko'Sil had said about the ranking of Light village and could see why they weren't broken up about it. They didn't need a vest to show how good they were, everyone knows that they were powerful and effective.

Soon supper is ready and she looks around for Koichi's mom. She then asks, "Where's your mother?" Koichi looks over at Hinata and then answers, "Mission. Mom's rank is over dad's, so she gets more missions." She looks surprise and Jeri then adds, "Dad's a Dor'Sharp and in time, mom will become an elder just like great granddad." She blinks and Kiba then asks, "So what's your mother's rank?" Koichi's father answers, "We don't have a name for it but I think Hokage compared it with Sannin." She looks stunned, for that meant that Koichi's mom was Kage level, or that's what Sannin were, ninja's with that could be concerned Kage level.

They all sit around the table and soon Jeri begins to ask for dishes of a certain kind. Terish or those that knew just what Jeri was talking about would then pass the dish that Jeri asked for.

Soon Kiba asks about what was good hunting around here and Koichi's father and Terish begin to talk about hunting. She listens to the different kinds of water birds and of wild deer and pigs. It seems that there are a good three types of deer in the surrounding forests of where humans have settled. One type is a swap deer; also know as Whirl deer, due to the pattern of spots that look to be in a spiral pattern on the hind legs and one type called Grey deer. The most common the kind was called Sun deer. For the simple fact that the deer tend to have a really golden coat without any spots too.

She smiles as she listens to this. She gets a warm feeling just being here. The feel of around the table was of good humour and friendliness. She'll miss this, for her family doesn't really talk during meals or if it was, it was usually to criticize someone. A part of her just wishes never to go back home.

Then she remembers what happened the night before the fights began just after the second exam took place. She remembers what the elder had said and now remembers that same elder was the one that spoke before Hokage had during the feast. It's her team that's staying here at Light village. She also didn't know the elder's name.

Soon they finish off the meal and Koichi helps his father clean up. They move back to the living room and she then begins to talk with Yue about the council of elders. Shino looks interested and when Koichi joins them, he then began to talk about his great grandfather Shinya who is also on the council. She soon learns about some of what the elders do, for they keep an eye on future events. For they were always on guard for Oni trying to push out of the mountains into the surrounding jungles and forests. She also learns just how bad that was, for it seems that Oni breed quickly and they couldn't be allowed to live outside of the mountains. The conversation turns to the dangers of crossing the mountain range. She wonders if she could see pass the genjutsus that cave drakes use. She finds that this place might seem like heaven doesn't mean it's without its dangers too. And the simple fact was, Light village needs all the ninja they could get for they were always under attack. It also means that they need all the training they could get before ever starting missions. She wonders if her team will be split up for extra training, and as it gets late, she knows that they'll be getting more training before ever going on missions. That thought didn't seem so bad, for they seem to know more about the workings of the creatures they fight as a dog breeder knows about his animals.


	17. Chapter 17

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

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'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

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Chapter 17

(---Haku---)

He listens to Brim's scout report. It seems that some Oni have found a cave by the waterfall by the mining town. He looks over at Kiba and Akamaru; both look ready to for a fight. He grins a bit at this and then nods his thanks to Brim and Brim just grins. They watch as Brim takes off into the air before they begin to stalk forward.

It took them a good forty minutes to find the group of Oni and then they split apart. Akamaru goes left and Kiba right. He just shakes his head as he remembers the twelve year old that first came to Light village for the chuunin exam. It's been a year since then and both Kiba and many others of that age group have matured too.

He knows that he's grown too. Already he is engaged to a wonderful girl by the name of Recca Cloud. They are to marry in three years, when both of them are eighteen. He smiles at the thought of his girlfriend. Recca is a few inches taller then he is. Recca's hair is a sandy color with grey eyes. Recca is also the oldest of her siblings, Recca has six other siblings with only two of them being sisters. Recca and him had five missions together before he finally asked her out on a date. He wouldn't have had the courage if it weren't for Brim.

Since the chuunin exam, there were now a good thirty beings living at Light village, that weren't human. There were also members of the other six races living at hidden Leaf too. The most human looking races were the Gargoyles, _Arace_, and _Virell_. Then there are the _CerYo_, Water Drakes, and Qualcoals who were very odd looking.

The Gargoyles all look different but have similarities between them all. They have three fingers and a thumb. They have wings on their back, though some remind him of bats or sugar gliders for their wings were connected to their arms and legs. They come in a ray of colours, like dark green and blue to the lighter colours like white and gold. Gargoyles at one time use to turn to stone during the day and back into flesh at night. But thanks to the Water Drakes, they no longer transform into stone statues during the day. They grow old slower then humans and also live longer too. They were also taught by the Water Drakes on how to use chakra. They were very close allies with Water Drakes, like to live by the coasts and other large bodies of water.

_Arace_ tend to be close to six feet tall and over, much like the _Jraz_. Unlike the _Jraz_, they were not lizards. They have elongated heads with two points where they can breath. They also have black hair and as they get on in years, their hair goes grey or white. They were also a telepathic race, so the windpipes were separate from where they swallow their food. They have two sets of legs to walk on as well as arms like humans, only with short claws at the end. Also the legs were digigrade with only three toes on each foot, with three-inch claws. They tend to be shades of brown with black markings. Each clan has a certain pattern and they inherit this pattern from their mother, so their clan trace their heritage through their mothers. Both females and males look a lot alike, the only difference between the genders were the simple fact that females prefer their black hair to be braided.

_Virel_ were the last of the races to have hands remotely similar to a human. They tend to grow to be between five and half feet tall to seven feet tall. They remind him a bit like a weasel or an otter. They have slender bodies that were flexible and also three to four and half feet tails. Their ears were small and they're fur could be black, grey, dark brown, light brown, tan, dark red, and white. Like weasels and otters they have lighter colours for their bellies and snouts. They were also very easy going and playful. They also used chakra and were the ones who taught the first settlers of Light village on how to use chakra effectively.

The _CerYo_ race were almost similar to the _Kir!ron_, for their were about the size of the _Kir!ron_. That about all they have in common though. Their front paws have retractable claws. They remind him something crossed with a leopard and a wolf, for they have long canines and the way they move, with a cat's grace, but with a wolf's stamina and fluffy mane. They could have spots or stripes on coats. They have the same colours as a wolf but could be turtle shell in colour too. They have short but strong muzzles and pointed ears like a wolf or cat. Their tails were long and flexible like a cats, but with the wolf's fluffy fur thrown in. They live in groups and they could mate for life like a wolf or not at all. They could growl like a wolf or yowl like a cat. They also could howl like at wolf, most of their songs were combos of howls mixed in with some yowls. It makes for interesting listening though.

Qualcoals are a race of fliers; their wings were a mixture of a bat's wing with feather like scales. They're a good ten to forty feet long with twenty to eighty feet wingspan. They do continue to grow, as they get older, that's where the forty feet individuals come from. They come in a rainbow of colours, and like to mix them up too. For they can change colour by just using chakra to change the colour. They have long necks and have hind legs with long toes tipped with claws. They don't have fingers like the _IrKiv_ have on their wings, only a single thumb claw. They can also change their body shape, with in a certain boundary though. They can add horns or make their scales look more like feathers. He'd have to admit, they were like works of art when they want to be.

Then finally Water Drakes; they were related to Cave drakes but were smarter and more social. They also prefer to live around bodies of water. They, like Cave drakes, don't have wings. They were more then apt at using chakra outside of water jutsus. He's new teacher is a Water Drake by the name of Lex. Water Drakes were larger then Cave drakes and could like the Qualcoals change their colours and some of their body structure. One might ever go as far as saying that they sometimes enjoy having their colours play around over their bodies. He remembers how during this one lesson, Lex's colours of red and black move around throughout the whole lesson. The play of red and black remind him of lava moving. When he asked about why Water Drakes do that, Lex answer was, "It helps with control." Water Drakes were very vain and if Qualcoals could look like works of art, then Water Drakes could be beautiful moving landscapes.

He snaps out of his thoughts as a sharp bark from Akamaru is heard. He then takes one last look up into the sky before focusing on creating a mist. Soon the mist forms and the Oni are alerted and begin to group up together. They just help make Akamaru and Kiba's job much easier. As he focuses on creating water binds to hold the Oni, Kiba and Akamaru charge forward into the mist of the Oni.

(--------------------------------------Kabuto---------------------------------------)

He walks through the streets of a village close to hidden Sound. He reflexes on the pass year. The fact that his 'master' couldn't escape the seal placed on him by the demon fox carrier didn't faze him at all. He also knows what sets it off. For one a month, the seal actives and whenever they try to seal it or remove it. He finds it fitting, truth be told. The seal wasn't just on the body, but also on the very spirit. He remembers the encounter with Orochimaru's old teammate, Tsunade.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

They track Tsunade and Orochimaru offers to resurrect Tsunade's little brother and boyfriend. They give Tsunade a week to think about it and then head away. He's been going over stolen scrolls about Orochimaru's condition, but has found nothing that helps.

When they meet up with Tsunade, she's alone without her assistant. Then he notices how Tsunade's acting, and finds it suspicious. He stops her from getting too close to Orochimaru. He doesn't really care about what the conversation that happens next, only that Tsunade has never in her life heard about green chakra and that she did plan to kill her old teammate.

They soon are retreating away from the medic Nin. They planned for this and so when they were out in an open field, they then turn and attack Tsunade. He then uses Tsunade's fear of blood against her and as they move in to capture her, Jiraiya and Tsunade's assistant come upon them.

Soon Jiraiya and Orochimaru have summoned a toad and a snake. He's too busy fighting the assistant to get close enough to Tsunade. He heals himself quicker then what the assistant could attack him with. It then becomes a draw until a few kunai are thrown in their direction. They find a team of genin, mostly Gai's team without the little clone. They have no real choice but to retreat.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Personally, he didn't mind the fact that they failed to capture Tsunade. He already knows a trick that few medic Nins would ever use. It always surprises him that nobody ever thought of it, but then, the first few tries almost kill him.

He smiles at finally perfecting that ability. He learnt how to transform cancer cells into other tissue. It was easy to make cells go cancer like, but harder to get them to get transformed into other cells. For if in a way, cancer cells were like stem cells, they didn't do a function, but have the genes in them to. He was the only one to think about even trying this, and he finds that other then it being draining, it works perfectly.

He wonders just how he'll kill Orochimaru, for there has never been any doubt that he'll kill the ghost, one way or another. Then he'll just fade away and continue researching on that odd ability that allows cancer cells to repair damaged genes. Then he'll have a way for true immortality, not like what Orochimaru is doing. He plans on covering his trail very well when that happens.

**To Readers:**

Hope this answers some of your questions. I might not remember much from Biology, mostly about how cancer cells can repair the ends of the genes and that they don't differentiate either. I wonder why doctors don't try to get cancer cell to differentiate, but then it might just be a dream that they ever could. Also I finally got around to the remaining races too. As for the Gargoyles, if you even seen Disney's TV show Gargoyles, that's what that race is. I liked that show and still hoping for more seasons to come out on DVD. Also it was Sakura with Neji and Tenten. Hope you liked what I came up with. I'm also thinking of posting descriptions for the ten races to help keep track of what they look like and what they can do. So do you guys think I should? Review answers or something, don't mind any questions either. Till tomorrow!


	18. Chapter 18

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 18

(---Depth---)

The council, Hor'Ja, the Hokage, and himself have finish reviewing the crimes that the group of eight have done over the past year. The group were all humans who hate and despise change, and therefore, the good two hundred and seventy-six members that came from lands beyond these countries named after elements. They have conspired with others outside of this village in trying to kill and/or sell members of the ten nonhuman races that are friendly to Light village.

He then breaks the silence that has descended over the room. "Then by your own words you are guilty of breaking not only the Third's words but also the laws set by your own council." That brings many out of their thoughts and one of the older members nods and says, "Then by your words and the laws set, you are to be executed tomorrow evening." The leader of the eight realizes that they weren't getting off lightly, and says, "But that weasel killed five humans! Are you just going to stand by and let that… THING get away with murder?" Hor'Ja then says, "It was in self defence. For you did plan for months to confront and kill May. I have heard from May's husband about how broken up she was over killing those five. It's in the report that Depth and I have made during the interview with May. So, not only have you tried to murder May, but also planned on skinning her, dry her flesh and bones, and pickle her organs, but also have the nerve to say that she should be punished for just defending herself? You are lucky that not of May's Holt have decided to ask to punish you themselves! Do you know what they would do to you?" Like the ignorant men they were, they just stood there and say nothing. He then cuts in by saying, "They would rape your minds and then let you live. I think death is preferable then that. You would be lucky to die during the process, for if would be unlikely that you'd still be sane or even able to look after yourselves."

Members of the council just sigh, for they have learnt more about the laws of the ten races now living among them. They have a small book for all the laws that the ten beings have long since used before the founding of Light village. He watches, as the eight humans just look stunned at that revolution. He wonders why the Holt of Maple hadn't demanded that they turn them over, but then, he could only guess that they just didn't to drag it out. It might have taken them a good three months before coming to an understanding, but now it's only been a week and now this whole thing will be over tomorrow evening.

He snaps out of his thoughts as the others begin to leave. It seems that he spaced out a bit too long. He finds that the criminals were already gone and sighs as he gets up off the couch made for him to lie on. Soon Hor'Ja and him were on their way to where the Holt of Maple has set up their house.

It takes them a good thirty some minutes to reach the large house. When the Maple Holt and a few others Holts first came here and saw the houses made for them, they then spent the night in it and then began to remodel the house. It took them a good five days to do it, but ask any _Virel_ why they felt the need to redesign their houses if they're only going to be here for maybe five, now four years and the answers will be, "We live in a Holt not in a house!"

The large house turned Holt reminds one strongly of a large hill that the _Virel_ like to make their Holts in. There were even openings on the third floor, but considering that _Virel's_ also use chakra they have no problem walking up and down walls. _'Or on ceilings for that matter.'_ He thinks to himself as they walk right into the Holt. They were greeted by smells and sounds of the occupants, even if they don't see them.

Soon they make their way to up the staircase to the second floor. He lets Hor'Ja go in front of him, considering that he doesn't have any hands to knock on the door. They hear someone say, "Doors open." Hor'Ja opens the door and they walk in. They find Axe busy working on the loon and on seeing them, Axe gets up and says, "It's over?" He nods his head and Hor'Ja says, "They'll be executed tomorrow evening."

May's husband clicks his teeth and then looks thoughtful. "That's rather quick. I thought that they might take longer to be judged. I know that this might seem odd, but I thought that they might be going at this for at the very least take a month to come to a verdict." Axe tells them. He then says, "This village is at war, plus they had one of their telepaths go into one of their minds to learn more about the whole thing. They are now going to be watching certain individuals that weren't caught this time around. If they make any moves, they'll be killed before they get that close ever again."

Axe looks relived at this and then May walking into the room. "Did I hear rightly? They're going to be killed tomorrow?" May asks as she moves towards Axe. "Yes, they are. It'll look bad if they didn't show a strong front. They are at war with hidden sound." He tells May. May sighs and then nods, "I'm not in trouble?" Hor'Ja then says, "No, you were only defending yourself. We'll take our leave of you, then. Bye." They then turn and walk out into the hall. Hor'Ja then closes the door and they then leave the Holt.

He knows that Axe and May will speak with the leader of Maple Holt to tell them what happened. They then pause outside of the Holt and look at each other. "See you later, Depth. I got supper plans, bye." Hor'Ja says as he walks away. He watches as the _Fell'Tor$_ walk away. He then decides to go to get some grazing done before it gets any darker out. He heads to where the fields were for _Kir!ron_ to graze.

(-------------------------------------Hinata-----------------------------------------)

She lets her mind drift and soon she see an image of Sasuke trapped in a barrel. She then focuses in on a spot of Sasuke's neck and finds an odd seal there. Remembering some of her train, she then looks under the surface and watches as some purple chakra begin to eat away at Sasuke's mind and alters Sasuke's our body.

She just stares dumbfounded as the image changes. She turns to finds a pale Koichi in an orange jumpsuit racing through the treetops. She blinks and looks under the surface and then images assault her, one image of Koichi kissing Sasuke as well as Sasuke standing in front of Koichi full of needles.

She just pulls away and comes out of her trance. She blinks and wonders why it was so different to look under the surface of that Koichi then it was for Sasuke. She then slowly gets up and then checks the time. She finds that she has a good hour before having to meets up with her teacher, elder Yusuke. She doesn't eat anything, but has a shower and then changes into some clean clothes.

She then ties her headband around her neck and then checks the time. She then leaves her small house and walks towards the council chambers. The current meeting will be ending soon and then she'll be supervised. She wonders if she should speak to elder Yusuke about what she saw in that vision.

She blinks as she sees Koichi also waiting. She notices that Koichi is deep in thought, for he didn't react to her at all. She stops and takes this time to study Koichi. Koichi has grown, much like everyone else, and seems to be carrying himself differently these days. How much of it was due to the missions he's been on or on becoming a teenager has yet to be seen. Terish and Yue are still Koichi's best friends and teammates. She then notices the odd looking thing by Koichi's feet.

She studies it and blinks when she figures out what it is. _'Why is there a red panda here?'_ She thinks as she then kneels down to get a closer look. The red panda opens one eye and then without warning launches itself towards her. Out of reflex, she grabs the red panda before it reaches her face. The noise snaps Koichi out of his thoughts and he then grabs the red panda's neck and says, "Drop the act, _TerCa_." The red panda then sighs and soon an odd looking monkey is being held.

She blinks at the _TerCa_, for it's the first time seeing one up close. The race was tricky and also likes to shape shift to boot. The creature complains to Koichi in its naive tong. "Ur sil fin aot!" Koichi says simply, "She didn't attack you, you started it." She sighs and castes the translation jutsu on herself. "… come here at risk and didn't want to, doing you a favour." The creature says. Koichi then says, "Favour? I caught you and you were looking to save your hide! You know that you're kind can only come within a thousand miles of our villages and such. You know the treaties we've signed with your kind. You also know the punishment too." The _TerCa_ sends a glare to Koichi and Koichi sighs and then drops the monkey looking being on the ground.

"Sorry about him. Caught him trying to steal a necklace by the hamlet. He decided to trade some info for his life. That's why I brought him in." Koichi says. "It's my fault, I should have known better then to not think he was dangerous." She says. Koichi grins a bit at that and says, "It's usually peaceful around here, not your fault, I should have noticed you and warned you." She sighs and just nods, understanding what he means.

She remembers what she was told about the _TerCa_. They look monkey like in their true form. Also they weren't on friendly terms with Light village and some of the other ten races that were friends. _TerCa_ couldn't do much outside of changing their forms. Most people don't think that they use chakra to transform either. _TerCa_ live in large family groups and like to travel around. They grew to be less than four feet tall and their base colours were black, brown, and gold. They live to be a good three hundred years and could mate at thirty years old. They also don't usually mate for life and their breeding cycles were every ten years.

She sighs and looks away from the _TerCa_. She wonders what's taking them so long. Then after being there for a good thirty-six minutes the doors finally open and out come the elders. She smiles as she sees elder Ruki and her teacher. She straightens up and greets both elders. Koichi then greets them after her and then elder Yusuke says, "If I'm not mistaken, that's a _TerCa_." Koichi nods and says, "I caught the guy by the farms. He decided to give info to save his skin. Weather he as anything important to say is a different matter though." Then the _TerCa_ says, "_JenFe!_ are looking grouping together. Hear that they speak with some smart Oni about invading human territories." The elders both hiss at this and Koichi sends the creature a glare. She sighs and knows that this could be hazardous for the _TerCa_.

"So which chief of the _JenFe!_ spoken to the gods this time?" Elder Ruki says. "Soaring Blood." The _TerCa_ says. "Nothing new there then. Let me guess which tribe of Oni, it's the Grrroar ones right?" Elder Yusuke says. The Grrroar were the only real tribe of Oni. Rumours say that its leaders usually have some human blood in them. The story says that a human man raped a small female Oni. This female Oni then rumours say gave birth to a male child. Showing some of its human blood, the child then mates quickly and then gathers the children born out of those unions. They then formed into a tribe with the half human in charge. That group also lives in valley somewhere in the mountain range. Once long ago, this tribe caused many problems but now the human blood runs thin and they've been inbreeding since, in hopes to retain some of it. But they couldn't capture a human for they were too far away and they might get bored and kill the captive and eat them.

A look of horror slowly crosses onto the _TerCa's_ face as he realizes that they seem to know more about this then he did. She then steps in and says, "I can keep an eye on him. Could a seal be placed on him to keep him within the village? We don't need to let him go, but he could come in handy later." They all turn to look at her, not elder Ruki though. Koichi grins a bit and says, "I'll even place the seal myself, if it's alright with elder Ruki and elder Yusuke." The elders think about it and then elder Ruki says, "Good luck with him then." Her teacher nods in agreement and before the _TerCa_ knows what has happened, Koichi has finished with his seal and it's already on the _TerCa's_ back.

Elder Yusuke then says, "Training for tonight is cancelled." She smiles and nods. They then leave her with the creature. She then asks, "What's your name?" The creature stops examining its back and studies her. Then he says, "Don't got one." She then thinks about it and then says, "How about Hige?" The creature looks stunned and then says weakly, "If you wish it." She smiles and says, "Hige it is then. You must be hungry, huh?" Hige nods and then she leads him away. "By the way, I'm Hinata." She tells Hige and Hige then transforms into a colourful bird and sits on her shoulder. She then walks back to her place to eat.

(--------------------------------------Hige------------------------------------------)

He looks at the human that defended him. He sighs and wonders if the gods were favouring him this day. Not only does he have his life, but also a name. If he remembers what it means in the human tong, it means whisker. He then sighs and curls up. He'll make it up to Hinata; he will show her that she didn't make a mistake in saving his life or in giving him a name.

He, Hige, son of Free Spear and Star Song will one day go back to his people with tales of wonder and of adventure. He'll show them that he wasn't some stupid dreamer, but a great warrior. He drifts off into dreams filled with humans attacking each other and a huge fox with nine tails caged by light.


	19. Chapter 19

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 19

(---Koichi---)

He watches the _TerCa_ named Hige entertain a group of kids. Hige keeps transforming into different animals as he tells a story. He finds it very amusing to watch. Soon the story ends and the kids want another story, but Hige declines.

Hige then comes over and asks, "She ready?" He nods. It's been a good three weeks since he brought in Hige. During this time, Hige seems to want to prove himself, for Hinata's sack. Hige also seems stunned when he founded himself getting fitted for clothes the next day.

As they walk to where Hinata is waiting, he studies Hige better. The _TerCa_ young, around twenty something years old and Hige's base color seems to be light brown. Hige is also wearing simple white shorts. Hige also stands as straight as he could as he walks. He notices that Hige seems to be moving more confidently then when he first met the _TerCa_. They found Hinata well enough and his friends. Terish and Kiba were busy talking about the Oni that they've killed and Yue, Shino, and Hinata were talking about what's happened at hidden Leaf.

They notice him and Hige and they soon are off to go hang somewhere. He grins and takes one last look at the bathhouse, then turns to listen to Kiba and Terish argue about battle tactics that were best used against Oni. He just listens and adds a bit here and there. He could hear Hige then ask more about hidden Leaf. They soon find a café and they order stuff.

(-------------------------------------Sasuke-----------------------------------------)

He focuses in on the group of Sound Nin. He waits for them to move a bit more towards him. Then he gives the signal and the attack is under way. He charges forward with his short sword out. He twists out of the path of a kunai and with one clear swing, beheads the thrower.

He then uses his short sword to block a few more kunai and watches as Sellen and Neji take out another two. He moves towards the Sound Nin that was trying to do a jutsu. He sees that he'll not get there in time, so he throws his sword at the enemy ninja. The sword impels the guy in the chest and Tenten's throwing axe beheads the guy. The jutsu ends within seconds of the ninja's death.

He then turns and finds there are no more sound ninja to kill. He then takes a look at his team, Neji got a ripe on his front vest and Ganmaru looks a bit tired. He sighs in relief and they then begin to strip the death bodies of their cloths and then they use fire jutsus on the bodies. Then they carry the clothes and such away. They'll drop it off to be looked at by the commander of special ops. For there could be hidden messages in the vests or in the jacket lining. As to burning the bodies, it was far safer way to get rid of them, for even died, they could cause harm to humans, for they're bodies slowly, but surely became toxic in time. It was really hard to get rid of the pollution caused by the toxic waste, but not impossible.

He smiles warmly at Sellen; he's grown closer to her since her team came north. His fan club seems not to notice his growing friendship with the Light Nin. He's also quiet happy not to reveal it too, for he doesn't want Sellen to get into fights with those girls.

He adjusts his chuunin vest and then they were racing through the trees as fast as they can. He passed the last exam as the winner. From what he hears, Temari is still in charge with Gaara's help. So they also have a single Sand team in their village. Three Light teams, older ones called Hunters, were helping hidden Sand put down the revolt that's been going on for the last few months. It seems that hidden Sand didn't want a snot nose girl to lead their village. The fact that hidden Leaf and Light village supported Temari as the Kazekage didn't go over too well with some of the ninjas of hidden Sand. But it seems that the revolt is dying down and many seeing as Gaara hasn't gone on a killing spree helps Temari's cause.

(--------------------------------------Haku------------------------------------------)

Brim and him chat as they walk through the fishing village. They were chatting about the scouting mission. They were going to check out the territories of the _JenFe!_. It's to be a spying mission with his teacher Lex in charge. It'll be Brim, Hinata, Terish, and him under the command of Lex. The humans are to use henge to look like _Virel_. The mission it to see just how dangerous this gathering is. For _JenFe!_ have never kept true to their sides of any treaties signed.

They soon found the house that they were sharing with the others and decide to make snacks. As soon as they finish, the others arrived and they then chat more about what colours to use for their fur for the henga. Then Lex comes through the door and tells them to rest up, that they'll be leaving tonight.

(-------------------------------------Blood Trail-----------------------------------)

He watches as Koichi practices some of what elder Ruki has taught the teen. He points out errors that Koichi made and watches as the boy corrects them. He sometimes wonders how the blond teen would have turned out if they had just remained at hidden Leaf. But then he just snorts those thoughts away, they weren't important.

He had to admit that the kid was talented. But then, it helps with elder Ruki also being a demon carrier. He remembers a few stories about Way Path. They usually speak of her living close to the Oni and used to be worshiped by the Oni. He snorts, he never like Oni and he's more then happy to give Koichi a few pointers on better ways to kill them.

He watches as Koichi begins to get tired and decides that it's enough training for today. "Enough! You'll be too tired for your mission tomorrow. Get some sleep." He says. Koichi nods his head and then fades out. He then lets his thoughts drift.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The smell of fox blood reaches his nose. He stiffens and then speeds up. He soon finds his den in ruins. He puts down his kill and begins to check around for his mate and kits. He soon finds some of the remains of his mate and four of his kits.

He then stands and mourns a bit then his head snaps to his right and finds Lost walking towards him. For the first time in his life, he's happy that Lost pick this time to wonder away from the den. He moves towards his only surviving kit and comforts his son.

Soon he picks up his son by the scruff of the neck and walks away. He'll have a hard time raising his kit, but he'll raise him to the best of his abilities though. He also knows which clan human clan killed his family. He'll first raise his only son before getting his revenge.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

He sighs at that memory. He renamed his son Lost Hope and did a good job at raising him. Last he saw of Lost Hope, he had six tails and was courting a vixen with four tails.

Soon after that, he crossed over into this plane and began to search for that human clan that could cross planes. He found out that a rival clan already killed them. Pissed at missing his chance at revenge, he then began to kill of human clans with advanced bloodlines. He decided to keep them from ever breeding another clan like the Blazen clan, for many of the advance bloodlines did have blood ties to the Blazen clan.

He sighs at those thoughts. He wonders if he's a granddad yet. That thought cheers him up a great deal and reflects on the human that he has come to respect. The human teen that he's sealed in is growing into a fine young man. He wonders if he should tell the teen about his father. But then decides it's not his business to tell him, but Hokage's.

(------------------------------------------Depth-------------------------------------)

He watches Sasuke and Sellen spar again. He just waits, he finds it entertaining to watch humans spar. After a good three minutes they finally figure out that his standing here. He shakes his head and neck before speaking. "Nice to see you two love birds enjoying yourselves. I need your help with something." He tells them and they then glance at each other before Sellen asks, "What is it that you want us to do?" He answers, "Help with decorating for the festival. It's been a year and we're holding a celebration to mark the year." They both blink at this and then they nod their heads and he then turns and leads them away. Happy at not only that they're helping, but that they didn't deny that they're in love. He wonders how long until the young man's fan club realise that he's spoken for.

(----------------------------------------Hige----------------------------------------)

He sighs as he finishes eating his supper. He then remembers to wash and dry the dishes that he used. He then feels begins to feel lonely all over again. He then decides to see if any of the young humans that usually hang out with Hinata wouldn't mind him visiting.

With that, he takes a key opens the front door and then locks the door and pockets the key. He then heads off to check up on Kiba and Akamaru. He likes the two of them, for they were really energized and have different stories to tell him. The fact that Kiba seem to enjoy hunting only makes talking with Kiba even better.

He soon finds Kiba with Akamaru with Shino. He then transforms into a human. It's not perfect yet, but he's getting better. For shape shifting into something so big and different then most of the other beings, it takes a lot out of him. But when he walks over to them, the looks they gave him were worth it though. He just grins and Kiba then asks, "Hige?" He then lets go of the shape and giggles at their faces. "So, getting better?" They nod and then they go to train somewhere, he just tags along.

(--------------------------------------Random Girl---------------------------------)

She just stares as her hear beats quickly. The sight of Sasuke and that Light ninja were still playing over in her mind. Her pace quickens and then she breaks out into a run. She could feel tears falling down her face.

Why couldn't she be the one that choked on that candy! She races up to her room and then closes the door. She can't believe that Sasuke even knew how the hemlock. She cries into the pillow as the image of Sasuke helping that Light girl. Then she thinks about how to be in that girl's place. Well, she just needs to plan and soon Sasuke will be her's!

(----------------------------------------Hinata--------------------------------------)

They set up camp as dawn approaches. They haven't run into any trouble. She was worried about Hige though. It's his first time alone in her house. But then, she knows that the _TerCa_ could and will go out and visit other people if he's lonely. Though, she hopes Hige remembers how to lock the door and to unlock it.

She walks off to get firewood, leaving Haku, Brim, and Lex back at camp. Terish was already gone to refill the water containers. She soon finishes finding enough firewood and heads back to camp. She finds Haku busy setting up the tents and Brim being look out in a tree. Terish was already cutting roots. She finds the dry meat already out and some other items out too. Lex is in a trance and has his eyes half closed.

She then starts the fire and then helps Haku with setting up the tents. Lex slowly comes out of the trance and then says, "The wards are set. You can come down now, Brim." Brim then jumps out of the tree and lands on the ground. They finish and then gather around the fire. She then asks, "Drop the henge?" Lex thinks about it and then shakes his head. "Better not, you might forget to reset it later." She sighs and nods in understanding. It is draining but she now has better chakra control then before. She might not have as good control then Terish, who has had years of training, but she did have better then most hidden Leaf ninja. Her clan needs above average control for the their fighting style. It'll be a few years before Haku and her have the same control as Terish and other Light ninja.


	20. The End for Now!

**Starlight**

Don't own Naruto

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'_Thoughts'_

"Talking"

'_Someone Else Talking in a person's mind'_

(----) Different point of view

-+-+ Scene change

-/-/-/ Flashback

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 20

(---Hor'Ja---)

He looks around the clearing. They worked long and hard to have things set up. He sighs and listens to the music while spying most of the members of Light village ninja and a few hidden Leaf ninja. It's been a long hard year and they needed this. He grins and then walks to where he last saw Sasuke and Sellen. He knows that humans were very flexible when it comes to courting. They nod in his direction as he approaches.

Soon they walk around together as they talk about the year and about future plans. They find a spot to sit and continue to talk about things. Ganmaru and Riley, who then added their thoughts about what has happened and about future plans, joined them. It was relaxing to be among friends. He wonders how his clutch sister Ko'Sil is doing. He misses his pack and most of all, his sister Ko'Sil.

(---------------------------------------Koichi---------------------------------------)

He sighs as he connects with this plane's chakra. He feels a disruption in it, like something is either breaking through or is being sent through. He wonders which it was, but knows that it'll be a few days or weeks before it comes. He can't help but frown a bit as he feels out the disruption. He wonders just what's trying to get through…

(----------------------------------------Yue-----------------------------------------)

He grins as Hige entertains his younger cousins. He finds that Hige has some imagination. He sits a bit away from the group, but close enough to hear what Hige was saying.

His thoughts try not to think about the long mission that's coming up. It'll be just Koichi, Shonie, and him. Shonie is a friend of his dad's and was going to be in charge of the mission. It's to be a long one, a good month or two.

He shakes his head trying to get his thoughts out of his head. Now wasn't the time to think on such things. He has time enough to worry himself silly later. Now he just wants to enjoy his time with his friends and family. He looks behind him and finds his twin there, watching Hige as well.

"Quite the story teller, huh?" He says softly. Ruby blinks and looks at him and then nods. "True. It's just odd that a _TerCa_ is here, and is so … entertaining." Ruby says weakly. He grins a bit at that. "I'm leaving tomorrow. I really don't want to think about it though." He tells her. She sighs and says, "Me too. I'll be gone for a month. Going south to Lox City." He looks surprised at that, few humans other then the traders go all the way to _Arace's_ capital city. "I'm going into the mountains to find the Grrroar Tribe. The mission is to kill the lot of them." He tells his twin sister. She looks stunned and then grins a bit. "Well, good luck. You going with Koichi, though?" He nods and adds, "Also with Shonie Elf." She looks a bit surprised, saying, "I thought he was retired." He shrugs and then they both turn to watch as Hige finishes up the story.

(--------------------------------------Itachi-----------------------------------------)

He closes his eyes as he listens to the sounds of these creatures. He is the only survivor of the whole of the Akatsuki. Just four weeks ago, they all headed south towards the Taijor mountains in hopes of getting pass them to get to Light village. Then they would have looked for and then capture the Kuuybi carrier.

'_It sounded so easy. Should have known that it wouldn't be. There's a reason, a very good reason, as to why nobody ever heard from people who ever heads into the mountain range. If it's not a pack some things then it's more odd things attacking. I wonder just what these things are, though.'_ He thinks as he closes his eyes. He was getting a headache from all this grunts and growls. He wonders if now might not be such a time to try out that translation jutsu he copied that one time from observing that Leaf Nin using it while listening to a tape recorder.

He does the jutsu and soon finds that it works, for he now understands why these beasts were celebrating. It was because they captured him and were hoping to have him breed with some of their females. He just pales at hearing this, for he wonders which of these things are females. It wasn't until they began to have sex with each other about a good hour later did he realize that the differences must be few between males and females.

When one of the things approach, he decides to speak, "I'm not interested." The six-foot tall creature blinks at this and then just stares at him for a good minute before saying, "You not Light." He blinks and then decides that the creature was talking about Light village. "I am of Leaf." He says slowly. Not caring that he's an ex-Leaf Nin. The creature then seems to think about this and says, "You north human?" He just nods and says, "Many humans north." The creature thinks about this and then grins a bit. "Females too?" He nods, and begins to get an idea. "Many humans. Better chance at breeding." He states. The creature then laughs and nods, "Lead tomorrow." He is then relieved at this and just nods.

Then watches as the creature moves off to speak with others of his kind. He wonders if maybe he just found some lackeys. That thought make him feel much better. He then drifts off into sleep, for he'll have a long day tomorrow. He could learn much from these beasts, for it seems that they don't like Light village much.

(--------------------------------------Hinata----------------------------------------)

They had encounter a group of _TerCa_ today and Lex had spoken with them. They also now have a better idea on where to go. She wonders just what things that will happen, for the few times she has tried to see the future, it's been full of new paths. Only one thing has standout though, that is a large group of Oni going north. The leader looks almost like Sasuke, only older and with three dots. She wonders just what that means but she just pushes the thoughts about that out of her head, and tries to get some sleep. They have a long way to go and they'll have a rough time of it later.

**To Readers:**

This is the last chapter for Starlight. The next one will be out after January of 2006. I'm going to focus in trying to finish Lay of the Worlds and then my December story. Hope you like this chapter, for it'll be awhile before I get around to writing the next one. As to that disruption, you'll just have to guess about it. Thanks for reading Starlight! Also thanks for all the people who have reviewed. Bye for now!


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